INTRODUCTION 
TO 

PSYCHOLOGY. 





ri;iss "R F \ ?. ■ 
Book . V3 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



INTRODUCTION TO 

PSYCHOLOGY 



BY 
GEO. W. NEET, 

Professor of Pedagogy in Valparaiso University, 
Valparaiso, Indiana. 




Putliskcr, 

M. E. Bogarte Book Company, 

Valparaiso, Indiana, 

1906, 



.H3 



LIBRARY »f CONGRESS 

Two Copies Keceivcd 

StP 19 1906 

C«»yrirht Entry 

CLASS Cl XXc, Nt. 

CO^Y B. 




Copyriglit 1906, 
By Geo. W. Ncet. 



PREFACE. 

These studies in psychology are intended pri- 
marily for use in the author's own classes. As the 
title implies they are merely introductory to psychol- 
ogy. Every teacher of psychology has doubtless felt 
the need of work in his classes of which the definition 
of terms constitutes a large part. Such work is nec- 
essary preparation for intensive psychological study 
further on. It is the intention to supply this need in 
the author's own classes, that prompts to the present 
little volume. 

A second thought is to give students a general 
idea of the organization of psychology, and a compre- 
hension of its organizing principle to the end that an 
intensive study of any particular aspect of the sub- 
ject may be seen in its proper relation to the science 
as a whole. 

G. W. N. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
The Nature, Subject-matter and Method of Psychology - 7-16 

CHAPTER II. 
The Units of Investigation, - - - . 17-28 

CHAPTER III. 
The Nervous System, .... 29-37 

CHAPTER IV. 

Activity, - . . . . . 38-45 

CHAPTER V. 
Mind and Body, ..... 46-58 

CHAPTER VI. 
Mental Attributes and Consciousness, - - 59-70 

CHAPTER VII. 
Attention, ..... . 71-85 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Apperception, Self-activity, Iterativeness, Rhythm, - 86-94 

CHAPTER IX. 
Mental Activities, - - - - " - 95-108 



VI. CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER X. 
The Sensation, ..... 109-118 

CHAPTER XI. 
The Senses, 119-136 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Development of Knowing, - . - 137-145 



CHAPTER I. 

THE NATURE, SUBJECT-MATTER AND METHOD OF 
PSYCHOLOGY. 

The Meaning of Science. — Every one who has lived 
very long among people has some knowledge of the 
human mind. This knowledge he has picked up here 
and there by experience. An examination of this 
knowledge will show that it is in bits, scraps, and frag- 
ments; that it consists of truth mixed with error; that 
is. it is not very accurate ; and that it is not very exten- 
sive, and so not complete. Such knowledge, unsystem- 
atic, inaccurate, and incomplete is called common, or 
ordinary, knowledge. Common knowledge may be trans- 
formed by experiment, observation, and thinking into 
knowledge which is systematic, accurate and complete; 
that is, into scientific knowledge, or science. Thus the 
following statement may be made for science : 

Science is knowledge which results from making 
systematic, accurate, and complete commo7i knowledge. 
It is to be noticed that science is a product of the human 
mind. It is a mistake to think that, for instance, botany 
as a science has existed as long as the truths of plant 
life. Botany has existed only since humanity has learned 
the truths of plant life, has made them into a system, 
accurate, and complete. Thus the truths of plant life 
are many, many years older than botany. 



8 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

The Presupposition of Science. — Science is based 
upon the presupposition that the human mind acts 
uniformly; that is, that under the same conditions, one 
person's mind acts in general as other persons' minds 
act; also, that one person's mind acts at one time in 
general as it acts at other times under the same condi- 
tions. 

Illustration. — When ten persons look at snow it 
appears white to each one; also, if one person looks at 
snow at ten different times, it looks white to him each 
time. That is to say, the mind acts uniformly, and only 
this enables it to establish the scientific truth that snow 
is white. If to one it appeared white; to a second, 
green; to a third, yellow, and so on, or to one at one 
time, white; a second time, green; a third time, yellow, 
and so on, the truth could never be established. And this 
because the mind did not act uniformly. 

Mental Fhenomena. — If one will turn his attention 
inward and notice what his own mind does, one of the 
first things which he will discover is that it changes. 
Now he finds his mind thinking, for instance, about 
grammar and at another time he finds his mind think- 
ing about history. The only way he can account for 
his mind's heing in different conditions at different 
times is that it changes. This, one knows, if he knows 
anything. There is nothing of which one can be more 
certain than that his mind changes. These changes of 
the mind psychologists call mental phenomena. A 
change is a phenomenon, and a mental change is a men- 
tal phenomenon. Other terms which have the same 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 9 

meaning are activity and experience. From the above 
the following statement may be made : 

A mental phenomenon is a mental change, or activ- 
ity, of any kind. 

Physical Phenomena. — Any physical thing is a 
thing which occupies space, such as wood, a book, a 
horse, or one's body. If one observes physical things 
about his first discovery is, that they change. This he 
knows as well as he can know anything except that his 
mind changes. That his mind changes he knows most 
surely of all things. 

The thing that enables one to know that physical 
things change is that they are found to be in different 
conditions and positions at different times, and the only 
explanation for this is that they have changed. 

The human body occupies space, and since it is 
seen to be in different conditions and different positions 
at different times, it is known to change. These changes 
of the body are physical phenomena. 

An important truth about mental phenomena is that 
all mental phenomena are accompanied by physical 
phenomena. Sometimes the physical phenomena seem 
to precede the mental, and sometimes the mental seem 
to precede the physical, and sometimes they seem to be 
simultaneous. But in any case, so far as we know, there 
is never a mental phenomenon unless there is in some 
way connected with it a physical phenomenon. They 
are said to correspond; that is, there are corresponding 
mental and physical phenomena. 

Now, no one knows ultimately what the mind is, 
nor can any one study the mind directly. But no one 



lO INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

knows ultimately what a tree is ; no one knows what light 
or electricity is. We do know, though, how they act or 
change; that is, we know their phenomena, and such 
knowledge is very valuable to us. So we need not be 
discouraged that we can not know or study the mind 
directly, for we can know and study its phenomena and 
that is as much as we can study and know about any- 
thing. Now the science which deals with the phenomena 
of the mind and the corresponding phenomena of some 
part or parts of the body is psychology. 

Every science deals with laws ; that is, truths which 
are true of a large number of cases. Thus, psychology 
deals with the laws of mental and corresponding 
physical phenomena, truths that are true of the 
phenomena of all normal minds. From the above study 
the following definition of psychology is reached : 

Psychology is the science which treats of the laws of 
mental phenomena together with their corresponding 
physical phenomena. 

The word, psychology, is derived from the two 
Greek words, psyche, meaning mind or soul and logos, 
meaning thought or knowledge.. Thus literally psy- 
chology means knowledge of soul or mind. 

The terms mind, soul, and spirit are used inter- 
changeably by psychologists. Theology makes some 
distinctions in the meanings of these terms, but such 
distinctions are not observed in psychology. 

Subject-matter of Psychology, — In the mastery of 
any subject various points of truth must be studied and 
learned. These truths are usually called facts. Also in 
mastering the subject the connection among the facts or 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 11 

truths of the subject must be learned. Thus in master- 
ing a subject the facts and their relations must be 
learned. These facts and relations in any subject con- 
stitute its subject-matter. The following are formal 
statements for subject-matter : 

A subject-matter of any subject is the facts and 
relations to be learned in any subject. 

A subject-matter is the material of study in any 
subject. 

In the subject-matter of psychology are to be found 
two points in general, as follows : 

1. Mental phenomena. 

2. Corresponding physical phenomena. 

In physiology physical phenomena are studied, 
too. But physiology is not psychology. Not so many 
physical phenomena are studied in psychology as are 
studied in physiology. For instance, circulation, respir- 
ation, and digestion are studied carefuUy in physiology, 
but are hardly studied at aU in psychology. 

And again the physical phenomena are studied in 
psychology in different connections, or relations, from 
what they are studied in physiology. In psychology 
they are always studied in connection with the mental 
phenomena, in so far as they affect and in turn are 
affected by mental phenomena. 

The Method of Psychology. — The question for study 
in this connection is In what manner may the mind 
study psychology 'f That is to say. How may the mind 
get at, classify, and explain the facts of psychology? 

In general the four following methods of studying 
psychology may be seen : 



12 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

1. The Introspective method. 

2. The Experimental method. 

3. The Comparative method. 

4. The Objective method. 

Introspective Method. — The introspective method 
is the process of studying psychology by means of intro- 
spection. But what is introspection? It comes from 
intro meaning within and spicere, meaning to look. The 
ion in the word signifies the act of. Thus introspection 
is the act of looking within. 

We learn the physical phenomena in the world 
around us with our senses; with sight, hearing, touch, 
taste, etc. Thus we learn the moving of objects, lightning, 
thunder, the fragrance of the rose, and the aroma of 
fruit. But we cannot learn the phenomena of the mind 
in this way. These must be learned by the mind's look- 
ing into itself. We can turn our minds in upon them- 
selves and let them learn their own phenomena. Thus 
we can study our wishes, our hopes, our motives, our 
thoughts, and our feelings. The process of thus looking 
within with the mind's eye is introspection. The fol- 
lowing is a formal statement for it: 

Introspection is the process of making one^s own 
mental phenomena ohjects of study to find out what 
they are. 

Introspection is also called internal perception. 

Difficulty of Introspection. — There are two aspects 
to the difficulty of introspection. 

1. It is hard for those who have been used to 
studying objects learned through the senses to turn their 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 13 

minds in upon intangible, spiritual things and study 
them. 

2. If one turns his mind in upon a thought or feel- 
ing to study it, it at once disappears and he has only the 
memory of it to study. 

The things in our minds which we know through 
introspection are objects just as truly as the things we 
touch, taste, see, etc. But so accustomed do we become 
to thinking of only the things which we can know 
through senses as objects that it is difficult at first for us 
to see that mental phenomena are also objects. Thus 
since it is difficult to think of mental phenomena at all, 
it is of course much more difficult to observe, explain, 
and classify them accurately. 

It is one thing to have the feeling of love or anger 
but an entirely different thing to study it. Just as soon 
as the mind is turned inward to study the love or 
anger, it disappears and only the memory of it remains 
to be examined. 

But even if the introspective method does have its 
two difficulties, it is entirely necessary to the study of 
psychology. Without introspection no one could ever 
be made to understand mental phenomena. No one can 
understand anger except he himself has been angry, and 
he can study his own anger only through the intro- 
spective method. 

Psychology must then he studied hy the intro- 
spective method. 

The Experimental Method. — We can experiment 
with plants directly in the study of botany ; with animals 
directly in the study of zoology, or with matter 



14 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

directly in the study of physics, but not with mental 
phenomena directly in studying psychology. Yet there 
is such a thing as the experimental method in studying 
psychology. We can experiment with the mind indirectly 
through its connection with the body. The connections 
of the mind with the body; that is, its connection with 
eyes, ears, nerves, muscles, etc., can be experimented 
with, and thus mental phenomena changed and studied. 

The study of mental phenomena in connection with 
the body gives rise to what is called physiological 
psychology ; that is, the study of physiology in con- 
nection with mental phenomena not for the purpose of 
better understanding the physiology, but for the pur- 
pose of better understanding the psychology. 

The study of mental phenomena wholly through 
introspection gives rise to introspective psychology ; that 
is, psychology so far as it can be learned through intro- 
spection. 

Comparative Method. — Psychology deals essentially 
with the phenomena of the normal mind. But help 
comes to the student of psychology from comparing the 
phenomena of the normal mind with phenomena of other 
minds. Thus the phenomena of the normal adult mind 
may be compared with the phenomena of the minds of 
the following: 

1. Lower animals. 

2. Children in various stages of development. 

3. Persons with defective or disordered minds. 
The study of psychology through such comparing 

is by the comparative method, and gives rise to what is 
called comparative psychology. 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 15 

The Objective Method. — The mind acts and pro- 
duces results which are objective. The student can 
study these objective results of the mind and thus learn 
much about it in a similar way to his learning much 
about electricity by studying the results it produces. 
These objective results are fixed, certain and definite 
signs to us of the way the mind works. Some of these 
results are : 

1. Language and science. 

2. Institutions of civilization. 

3. Artistic creations. 

4. Philosophy and religion. 

Studying mental phenomena by means of these 
objective manifestations is by the objective method. 

Necessity of Introspection. — It matters not by what 
method we study mental phenomena we are able to 
understand them only by referring them to our own 
mental experiences and this we can do only by intro- 
spection. Thus the student of psychology can make no 
progress at all in its study without introspection. No 
one who had never had a sensation could be made to 
understand what a sensation is. The man who had 
always been blind thought scarlet must resemble the 
sound of a trumpet. 

Thus the introspective method in psychology is the 
most fundamental method, and introspective psychology 
is the most fundamental kind of psychology. 

The Nature of the Mind. — The question always 
asked the psychological student either by himself or by 
some one else and never very satisfactorily answered is 
What is the mindl This question is no more unanswer- 



16 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY, 

able than the questions, What is electricity? or What is 
matter ? 

Every student soon learns that the most persistent 
thing in the world in which he lives is force; that is, 
that which does work. Force does all the work done in 
the world of any kind whatever. Force working in var- 
ious forms which we can in any way know we call various 
things. Thus force manifests itself in one way and we 
call it electricity ; in another way and we call it heat ; in 
another way and we call it gravitation; in another way 
and we call it a horse ; in another way and we call it an 
oak tree ; in another way and we call it a star ; in another 
way and we call it the mind. But the form in which the 
force which we call the mind manifests itself is in con- 
sciousness. Thus the following definition of the mind 
is reached : 

The mind is that form of force which manifests 
itself in the phenomena of consciousness. 

It is not supposed that this definition will be fully 
comprehended by the student who is a beginner in 
psychology, but it is believed that further study will 
clarify and elaborate it to such an extent that it will 
prove very helpful. 



CHAPTER II. 
THE UNITS OP INVESTIGATION. 

Meaning of Unit of Investigation. — The subject of 
psychology is a science, and has resulted from the fact 
that the human mind is dissatisfied with common, or 
ordinary, knowledge and abhors vagueness. In its effort 
to change ordinary knowledge to science it begins by 
stripping away from the subject of study all irrelevant, 
accidental, and occasional facts, seeking the simple, ele- 
mentary, and persistent. It is this simplest, most ele- 
mentary, and persistent form of the subject-matter 
which is the unit of investigation. The formal state- 
ment for it is as follows : 

The unit of investigation in any science is the 
simplest, most elementary, and persistent form of its 
subject-matter. That is to say, it is the simplest, most 
elementary, and persistent whole thing which can be 
studied in a science. 

Each science has its unit of investigation. The 
chemist knows that his science is concerned with the 
element; namely, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, calcium, 
sodium, chlorine, nitrogen, etc. He studies their num- 
ber, qualities, atomic weights, combinations and pro- 
ducts. Thus the element is the unit of investigation in 
chemistry. 



18 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY, 

The botanists have found that their unit of investi- 
gation is the organic vegetable cell. The zoologists have 
found that their unit of investigation is the organic 
animal cell. They study its structure, development, 
combinations and products. 

The science of psychology differs somewhat from 
other sciences with regard to its unit of investigation. 
Other sciences have but one unit, psychology has two. 
This is because of the two distinct divisions in the sub- 
ject-matter of psychology: first, the mental phe7iomena, 
and secondly, the corresponding physical phenomena. 
The unit of investigation in the study of the physical 
phenomena is the nerve cell. The unit of investigation 
in the study of the mental phenomena is the sensation. 

Hotv It May Be Studied. — How does the psycholo- 
gist study the unit of investigation in psychology 1 

His first task is to observe it in order to find out 
what it is; that is, its nature so that he may be able to 
think about it in some definite way. 

His second task is to find out how it behaves itself; 
how it acts ; what its processes are under various condi- 
tions. 

His third task is to find out what new products or 
combinations are brought into being as a result of the 
activities or processes of the unit of investigation. 

The psychologist 's fourth task is to discover, formu- 
late, state and learn the laws and principles of both the 
mental phenomena and the corresponding physical 
phenomena. 

The Nerve Cell. — The nerve cell is a small body of 
neucleated nervous matter with thread-like extensions 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 19 

reaching from it. Both the central body and the thread- 
like extensions make up the nerve cell. The extensions 
are of the same kind of material as the central body and 
are continuous with it. It has been sometimes stated 
that just the central body is the nerve cell. And that the 
extensions from it are not portions of the cell. But this 
is wrong. It takes both the central body and all the 
extensions to make the nerve cell. Nerve cells thus con- 
sisting of the central body and the extensions are called 
neurones by neurologists. 

Form of Neurones. — Neurones are of various forms. 
The central body may be spherical, cylindricaly pyram- 
idal or irregular. All are however more or less irregu- 
lar and all developed cells have the thread-like exten- 
sions. There are mere germ cells which have no exten- 
sions. They are, so to speak, undeveloped baby cells. 
They are called neuroblasts. 

Material of Nerve Cells. — Nerve cells are composed 
of a granular, viscid substance usually called proto- 
plasm. Protoplasm is a living substance. Vitality is 
one of its necessary characteristics. There is no such 
thing as dead protoplasm. Its exact chemical composi- 
tion is unknown, though it is known to be very complex. 
Its main characteristics are absorption, secretion and 
excretion. 

Nerve Fibers. — Nerve fibers are parts of nerve cells, 
the extensions, or prolongations, leading off from the 
central body. They are too small to be seen with the 
naked eye, but vary much in both diameter and length. 
Some are as large as one twelve hundredth of an inch 
in diameter, and some are no larger than one one 



20 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

hundred thousandth of an inch in diameter. They vary 
in size between these two extremes. They have a branch- 
ing structure and vary in length from a part of an inch 
to several feet in length. 

There are in general two kinds of nerve fibers: 
those which carry impulses toward nerve centers, and 
those which carry impulses from nerve centers. Those 
of the first kind are called afferent nerve fibers and 
those of the second kind, efferent nerve fibers. The 
derivation of these words helps in remembering their 
meaning. Afl'erent is from ad, meaning to and ferre, to 
carry. Thus afferent nerve fibers are carrying to nerve 
fibers. Efferent is from ex, meaning from and ferre, to 
carry. Thus efferent nerve fibers are carrying from 
nerve fibers. 

Sensory and motor are terms which mean nearly the 
same as afferent and efferent when applied to nerve 
fibers, but not quite the same. Sensory and motor are 
not quite as broad terms as afferent and efferent. Nerve 
fibers that carry impulses to nerve centers which do not 
result in consciousness are afferent nerve fibers, but not 
sensory. Such are the afferent nerve fibers carrying 
impulses from the iris of the eye to their nerve centers. 
And nerve fibers carrying impulses from their nerve 
centers which do not result in muscular action are 
efferent nerve fibers, but not motor. Such are the fibers 
carrying impulses from their centers to the liver, result- 
ing in the secretion of the bile. 

The function of the nerve fibers is to unify the action 
of the nervous system. This they do by carrying 
impulses from one nerve center to another. Thus by 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 21 

means of the nerve fibers the touch corpuscles in one's 
toes are in communication with the nerve centers in the 
highest part of one's brain. 

Number of Nerve Cells. — The number of nerve cells 
in the human body is so great that one can form no 
adequate idea of them. It is estimated that there are 
more than three thousand million in the brain alone. 
At any rate it is certain that every one has a good many 
million which remain unused and so never develop. 

It is well known that cells increase in number by 
cell division. Nerve cells increase in number in this 
way early in the life of the human being. But this 
increase in the number of nerve cells in the human being 
ceases before birth. There is no increase in the number 
of nerve cells in the human body after birth. Not one 
of us has a nerve cell more than we had when we were 
born. Some of us may have fewer, but none has more. 

Connectioyis Among Nerve Cells, — Contrary to 
popular belief, no two nerve cells in the human body 
have a continuous nervous connection. Each nerve cell 
is a distinct and separate thing. There is no extension 
from any nerve cell which is continuous with the exten- 
sion from any other nerve cell. Thus there is not a con- 
nection of continuity between nerve cells. 

How then are nerve cells connected ? Very much in 
the same way that the branches of two trees growing side 
by side are connected. Or in the same w^ay that the roots 
of two trees growing side by side are connected. This 
connection is a connection of contact. Thus nerve cells 
have contact connections but do not have connections of 
continuity. 



22 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

It has previously been seen that developed nerve 
cells consist partly of extensions or prolongations from 
the central body. 

''These are of two kinds, (1) the axone, a fiber 
having the quality of conductivity and becoming what 
we have called the axis cylinder of a simple nerve, or 
nerve fiber; (2) the dendrons, which divide into finer 
branches or rootlets, called dendrites. Their functions 
are somewhat uncertain, including possibly that of 
nutrition in the service of the cell body, but probably 
that of conductivity also. 

'^Axones. — The axones have a branching structure 
and vary greatly in length, from a fraction of an inch 
up to two or three feet, according to location and use. 
They often branch greatly, throwing off side branches 
called laterals, which branch again in turn. They usually 
terminate in little tufts resembling the fingers of a hand, 
or the rootlets of a plant, and known as the arboriza- 
tion of the axone. The arborization of one axone may, 
in appearance, clasp or encompass the cell body of 
another neurone, or the arborization of one axone may, 
interlace with the dendrites of another, and thus effect 
communication with it by a process thought to be similar 
to that of electrical induction. The arborized con- 
nections between neurones are numerous in the spinal 
cord and medulla, and seem to obviate the necessity for 
axones of greater length, while furnishing a greater 
diversity of paths between various parts of the brain 
and the outlying members of the body. Neurones are 
anatomically separate, do not penetrate one another, but 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 23 

communicate force something like a row of men clasping 
hands with one another." 

The Sensation. — When the end of any sensory- 
nerve fiber is stimulated, it arouses a disturbance there; 
this disturbance extends along the nerve fibers until it 
reaches the brain and causes a disturbance there which 
in some way arouses a state of consciousness, if the dis- 
turbance is great enough. This state of consciousness is 
what psychologists call the sensation. The awareness of 
cold, warmth, pressure, color, noise are states of con- 
sciousness which are sensations. 

Steps Leading to. — The steps leading to the sensa- 
tion are partly mental and partly physical, and are as 
follows : 

1. External stimulus. 

2. Excitation of outer nerve ending. 

3. Transmission of impulse. 

4. Disturbance in brain. 

5. Corresponding disturbance in mind. 

6. The resulting state of consciousness — the 
sensation. 

Illustration. If one should put his hand on a hot 
stove, the motion in the particles of the stove — the 
stimulus — would cause a disturbance in the touch cor- 
puscles in his hand which would extend along the nerve 
fibers and arouse a disturbance in the brain. Then there 
would be a corresponding disturbance in the mind from 
which would result the pain, the state of consciousness — 
the sensation. 

Or again, if a gun were fired the motion in the air 
would disturb the ends of the nerve fibers in the ears. 



24 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

which disturbance would extend along the nerve fibers 
and disturb the brain. Then there would be a corre- 
sponding disturbance in the mind from which would 
result the sound, the state of consciousness — the sensa- 
tion. 

External Stimulus. — In the two illustrations above 
the thing which disturbs the outer end of the nerve fibers 
is motion. In the first instance it is motion in the par- 
ticles of the stove and in the second it is motion in air. 
A careful analysis of various kinds of stimulus will 
reveal the truth that it is always motion in some form. 

"But numerous as seem the various ways in which 
external bodies may affect us it is found that these var- 
ious modes are reducible to one — motion. Whether a body 
is near or far, the only way in which it affects the organ- 
ism so as to occasion sensation is through motion. The 
motion may be of the whole mass, as when something hits 
us ; it may be in the inner particles of the thing, as when 
we taste or smell it ; it may be a movement originated by 
the body and propagated to us through the vibrations of 
a medium, as when we hear or see. But some form of 
motion there must be. An absolutely motionless body 
would not give rise to any affection of the body such as 
ultimately results in sensation. ' ' 

But there may be much motion in the world about 
us that is not stimulus to us. That motion may be 
stimulus it must come in contact with some part of the 
nervous system. Thus the following statement for 
stimulus is reached : 

Stimulus is any form of ^notion which comes in 
co7ttact with the nervous system. 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 25 

While stimulus is most frequently external to the 
body, it is not necessarily so. But it is always external 
to the mind. 

Excitation of Outer Nerve Ending. — Most of the 
sensory nerves have specialized outer, or peripheral, 
endings. The retina of the eye; the touch corpuscles, 
the taste buds, etc. are the specialized ends of nerve 
fibers. Motion coming in contact with these arouses 
them to a state of motion, disturbance, or vibration. It 
is this disturbance which is called the excitation of th^ 
peripheral nerve ending. 

This disturbance gives the impulse a strong initia- 
tive and sends it forward with greater strength than it 
would otherwise have. 

Transmission of Impulse. — The disturbance in the 
peripheral nerve ending extends along the nerve fiber to 
the nerve center, the brain, and this is called the trans- 
mission of the impulse. 

But what is the thing which is called an impulse? 
It is an excess of energy, or a surplus of force. A sur- 
plus of force always produces motion. Thus the impulse 
produces motion. The nerve fiber may be thought of as 
made up of very small particles in contact with each 
other. Stimulus disturbs the end particles which disturb 
those in contact with them, those disturbing the next, and 
so on. The motion of each particle is produced by the 
excess of energy transferred to it by motion. In a 
similar way a nerve center may possess an excess of 
energy, or force, and motion results. All motion in the 
world is the result of impulse, or of an excess of force, 



26 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

or energy. The ultimate source of all impulses in so far 
as our material universe is concerned is the sun. 

Rate of Transmission. — It used to be thought that 
the impulse was an electrical current passing along the 
nerve fiber as if it were a wire. But now, since the rate 
of the nervous impulse has been measured, it is known to 
be much too slow. The nervous impulse travels about 
110 feet per second, while an electric current travels 
about 186,000 miles per second. One hundred and ten 
feet per second is the approximate rate of nervous trans- 
mission of impulse. Conditions sometimes change this 
a few feet one way or the other. One hundred and ten 
feet per second is seventy-five miles per hour. So 
nervous impulse travels as fast as a train with a speed 
of seventy-five miles per hour. 

' ' A sensory nerve conducts a message at the average 
rate of 111 feet per second. If a man had an arm 111 
feet long, one second would elapse from the time his 
finger was pricked before he felt the pain. ' ' 

*'If a man had an arm sufficiently long to plunge 
into the sun's vaporous metal, 140 years would roll by 
before he felt any pain. In other words he would die 
before he knew that the hand was burned. A motor 
nerve also transmits a command from the brain to the 
muscle at the rate of 111 feet a second. Suppose an 
orange tree ninety-three millions of miles in height ; and 
the hand on an arm of that length already lying on a 
bough one foot from a desired orange. The mind issues 
a command to grasp the fruit. This order would reach 
the hand in 140 years, and not until then would the hand 
grasp the fruit." 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 27 

Disturbance in Brain. — The impulse reaches the 
brain and arouses a disturbance there. The disturbance 
may be small or it may be great, depending upon the 
degree of nervous tension at the time, and the force of 
the stimulus. Sometimes it is almost like dropping a 
spark into a box of tinder or a quantity of gun powder. 

Corresponding Mental Disturbance. — Just how the 
disturbance in the brain occasions a mental disturbance 
no one knows. But that such a mental disturbance 
occurs we do know. Introspection tells us this, and we 
also infer it from the observation of others. I know that 
a loud noise or bright light has in close connection with it 
a mental disturbance. And I know this as well as I can 
know anything on earth. Psychologists say that the 
connection between the brain disturbance and the cor- 
responding mental disturbance is unaccountable, un- 
thinkable, and incomprehensible. 

The State of Consciousness — the Sensation. — The 
sensation itself is a purely mental thing, not part mental 
and part physical, and not physical but always wholly 
mental. It is consciousness resulting from the mental 
disturbance corresponding to the disturbance in the 
brain. It is the state of consciousness resulting from a 
mental activity. It is a condition of the mind. It is 
fundamental in mental life. A pain from pricking your 
finger is a sensation. The odor from smelling a rose is a 
sensation. The flavor from fruit, the aroma from coffee 
are sensations. 

'^Sensations are in the mind and not in various 
parts of the body. One says that he has a pain in his toe, 
and so it surely seems to the unsophisticated person; 



28 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

but that is purely a matter of association. The nerve 
ends are in the toe, but the pain is in the mind only. 

We must carefully refrain from speaking of sensa- 
tions as traveling or being 'carried' from the periphery 
to the brain. Sensations can not travel. Nerve currents 
pass from the periphery to center, but sensations, never. 
We need, therefore, to distinguish between sensations, 
which are psychical, and nerve-impressions, which are 
physical. They may be thought of as having their point 
of contact in the cerebrum." 

Definition of Sensation. — The following definition 
of the sensation results from the previous study : 

The sensation is a state of conscious7iess resulting 
from a mental disturbance corresponding to a hrain dis- 
turbance caused hy some external stimulus. 

Importance of Sensation. — The sensation is the most 
fundamental mental fact. It is the starting point in all 
mental development. Without the sensation the mind 
could never start in getting knowledge. Without it 
there could be no feeling, and without it the develop- 
ment of the will could never begin. It is the first con- 
scious step across from the physical to the mental. 

' ' Sensation is the meeting-place, the point of coinci- 
dence of self and nature. It is in the sensation that 
nature touches the soul in such a way that it becomes 
itself psychical, and the soul touches nature so as to 
become itself natural. A sensation is, indeed, the trans- 
ition of the physical into the psychical. ' ' 



CHAPTER III. 

THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 

Composition of. — The nervous system is an aggrega- 
tion of nerve cells. As previously seen these cells are 
anatomically independent. They are connected by con- 
tact, though, so that they may work in unity. This fact 
that they work in unity, organize their work, is all that 
enables us correctly to call it the nervous system. 

Centers and Ganglia. — The body of the nerve cell 
from v/hich the fibers are prolongations is a nerve center. 
Several or many of these bodies forming masses in con- 
tact or apparently so are nerve centers. Thus there are 
centers in the spinal cord and the brain is a great nerve 
center. 

Knots or masses of nervous matter are called 
nervous ganglia. Thus again the brain is a great nervous 
ganglion. 

Functions. — The functions of the nervous system 
are in general three, as follows : 

1. To transmit impulses. 

2. To control impulses. 

3. To serve as a store house of energy. 
Transmission of Im^pulses. — The human body is 

called upon in life to unify the action of its various 
parts. In doing this these parts must com^municate one 



30 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

with another. This communication is carried on by the 
transmission of impulses. And it is an important part 
of the work of the nervous system to transmit these 
impulses. 

Controlling Impulses. — Impulses do all the work of 
the body and mind, too. But of themselves they are 
purely mechanical and uncontrolled. They, unless con- 
trolled, produce motion merely along the lines of least 
resistance. But in all reflex action the nervous system 
has the impulses to act so as to do some kind of necessary 
work; that is, it controls the impulses. The nervous 
system also helps to control the impulses in other kinds 
of activity than reflex, in any sort of activity in the body 
or mind whatever. 

Store-honse of Energy. — A great amount of energy 
is stored up in the nervous system. It is kept in the 
nerve centers until occasion calls for its discharge. The 
muscles are powerless to do work without the discharge of 
energy to them along some nerve fiber. The more energy 
there is stored up in the nerve centers the greater the 
nervous tension is, and the more impulses there are. 
Without the storing up of the energy in excess in the 
nervous system there would be no such thing as self- 
activity of either the body or the mind. 

Divisions of the Nervous System. — For the purpose 
of helping ourselves in study, the nervous system may 
be thought of in two divisions : 

1. The central nervous system. 

2. The peripheral nervous system. 

The Peripheral Nervous System. — The peripheral 
nervous system consists of all nerve cells, nerves, 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 31 

nerve fibers and nervous ganglia lying outside and 
around, to some extent, the spinal cord and brain. The 
nervous mechanism of the eye, of the ear, of the nose, of 
the mouth, of the skin, and of heart, lungs, and diges- 
tive organs helps constitute the peripheral nervous sys- 
tem. The term,peripheral, is from two Greek words 
meaning carried around. Thus the peripheral nervous 
system is carried around the central system. 

The Central Ner^voiis System. — The central nervous 
system consists of the brain and spinal cord. In the 
development of the nervous system there is a time when 
it consists wholly of the spinal cord, and the spinal cord 
is simply a tube. From this tube of nervous material 
all the rest of the nervous system is developed, the per- 
ipheral system and the brain. 

The Spinal Cord. — The spinal cord is a column of 
soft nervous matter extending from the brain downward 
in the cavity formed by the bones in the spinal column 
for about 18 inches in man, where it tapers off into a 
filament. The diameter of the spinal cord varies at dif- 
ferent lengths but averages on the whole about one half 
an inch, or more exactly about as large as one's little 
finger near the middle. Running the length of the 
spinal cord in front is a deep furrow called the anterior 
fissure, and along the back of the cord is another deep 
cleft called the posterior fissure. The anterior fissure is 
wider than the posterior fissure, but not quite so deep. 
The two fissures extend into the cord so far that they 
almost meet, and thus nearly cut the cord into right and 
left halves. 

Material of the Cord. — If the spinal cord be cut 



32 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

across and one looks at the exposed cross section, a gray- 
ish appearing substance lying on the inside will be seen 
surrounded by a whitish looking substance. In each 
half the gray matter is somewhat in the form of a 
crescent with rounded horns, the convex side of the cres- 
cent being toward the center and the horns pointing to 
the front and the back. The white matter of the cord 
is made up of nerve fibers almost wholly, and the gray 
matter is made up mainly of nerve cells, but there are 
some fibers intermingled with them. 

The Spinal Nerves. — From the spinal cord are 
given off nerves in pairs at intervals along its length. 
These nerves are called the spinal nerves, and there are 
31 pairs of them. The nerves of each pair spring from 
the same level, one from the right half and one from 
the left half of the cord. Each nerve springs from two 
roots, one from the anterior side and the other from the 
posterior side of its half. The anterior and posterior 
roots unite to form one nerve, and then pass from the 
spinal cavity through openings between the bones of the 
spinal column. Afferent nerve fibers form the posterior 
roots and efferent fibers form the anterior roots but 
both are bound up in one nerve. These fibers are dis- 
tributed to the muscles and skin of the trunk. 

Functions of the Spinal Cord. — The spinal cord has 
two functions, as follows : 

1. The nerve fibers in the cord form the connec- 
tion between the brain and peripheral nervous system. 
Thus sensory impulses are sent to the brain from the 
sense organs, and motor impulses are sent from the brain 
to the muscles, and this is its first function. 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 33 

2. There are nerve centers in the spinal cord 
which control impulses without imposing the task on 
the brain and mind, and this is its second function. 

The Brain. — For our purposes here all that part of 
the central nervous system contained in the cranial cav- 
ity will be considered the brain. It is the largest nerve 
center in the body. 

Divisions. — In a general way the divisions of the 
brain are three in number : 

1. The medulla oblongata. 

2. The cerebellum. 

3. The cerebrum. 

In addition to these three the Pons Varolii may be 
considered a fourth division, but from a psychology point 
of view of minor importance. 

The Medulla Oblongata. — The medulla oblongata is 
continuous with the spinal cord and projects upward in 
the cranial cavity from it. It is located somewhat below 
and almost in front of the cerebellum and nearly cen- 
trally below the cerebrum. In structure it is complex, 
composed of both white and gray matter arranged much 
as in the spinal cord, but the proportion of gray matter 
in it is greater than in the cord. 

The medulla has at any rate three important func- 
tions, as follows: 

1. It forms a pathway for all impulses to the 
hemispheres of the cerebrum from the spinal cord and 
from the hemispheres of the cerebrum to the spinal cord. 

2. It gives rise to six pairs of the most important 
nerves in the human body. 

3. It contains the nerve centers which control 



34 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. - 

respiration, the beating of the heart, the size of small 
arteries, swallowing, the secretion of the saliva, and some 
other processes. 

The Cerehellum. — The cerebellum lies directly 
behind the medulla and slightly above it and directly 
below the rear portion of the cerebrum. It consists of 
two masses much larger than the medulla. Its surface 
is closely folded into small ridges. It is made up of both 
white and gray matter. 

Fuyictions. — The cerebellum seems to have for its 
main function the control of the muscles in certain kinds 
of reflex action. When one is learning to walk or skate 
or ride a bicycle he must direct his actions with his 
mind, but there comes a time, if he keeps practicing, 
when he no longer has to direct these actions with his 
mind. The actions then have become reflex. But they 
were not at first reflex. Such reflex actions are called 
acquired reflexes. Now the cerebellum is believed to con- 
tain the nerve centers for the acquired reflexes employed 
in walking, running, skating, etc. ; that is, in locomotion. 

The Cerebrum. — The cerebrum occupies the top, 
front, and upper rear part of the cranial cavity. In fact 
it seems to occupy almost the whole of the cavity in the 
cranium. 

In size it is from four-fifths to seven-eighths of the 
entire brain. Its weight varies in different persons and 
in the same person at different times in life. Though it 
is difficult to determine an average brain weight, it is 
perhaps not far from 53 ounces in adult life. Daniel 
Webster's brain weighed 53.5 ounces, and Agassiz's, 
Napoleon's and Lord Byron's brain weighed about 53 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 35 

ounces each. A man by the name of Rustan, an ignorant 
and unknown workman, had a brain weighing 78.3 
ounces. Gambetta, a French statesman, "a man of 
indisputably high genius and ability," had a brain 
weighing 40.9 ounces. Of the weight of these brains, it 
is to be remembered that the cerebrum is about seven- 
eighths. 

In infancy and childhood the weight of the cere- 
brum is not so great, and in old age it is not so great as 
in adult life. 

The brain of persons born and reared in a cold 
climate is on an average larger than those born and 
reared in the warmer climates. 

Structure of the Cerehrum. — The cerebrum is 
divided from back to front by a deep fissure almost into 
two halves, called hemispheres, one being called the right 
hemisphere, the other the left. This fissure is a continu- 
ation apparently of the fissures of the spinal cord, that 
on the top of the cerebrum being a continuation of the 
posterior fissure, and that on the under side of the cere- 
brum being a continuation of the anterior fissure of the 
spinal cord. This fissure, the median fissure, so nearly 
cuts the cerebrum in two that only a small portion of 
nervous matter, called the corpus callosum is left to con- 
nect the two halves. The hemispheres of the cerebrum 
correspond to each other as the halves of an apple cut 
in two correspond to each other. 

Each hemisphere is divided along its outer side by 
a second large fissure, which is called the fissure of 
Sylvius. "This fissure is parallel to a line drawn from 
the end of the nose to the external opening of the ear, 



36 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

and about two inches above it, its middle point being 
over the ear. ' ' Another way of locating it is that it lies 
almost directly under a line from the center of the eye 
socket to a point two inches above the external opening 
of the ear, this point being over the middle of the fissure 
in length. 

Each hemisphere is also divided by another great 
fissure, which is called the fissure of Rolando. ' ' It arises 
near the middle and a half inch above the Sylvian 'fis- 
sure, and extends upward and backward about four 
inches to the median line separating the two hemis- 
pheres. ' ' 

Lohes of Cerebrum. — Each hemisphere of the cere- 
brum is divided on its outer surface into four pretty 
clearly defines lobes: the frontal, parietal, occipital and 
temporal. 

The frontal lobes lie in front of the fissure of 
Rolando and above the fissure of Sylvius. They occupy 
the whole front part of the cranial cavity. 

The parietal lobes lie above the fissure of Sylvius 
and behind the fissure of Rolando. They occupy the 
whole top portion of the cranial cavity behind the fissure 
of Rolando. 

The occipital lobes lie in the back portion of the 
cranial cavity below the parietal lobes and above the 
back portion of the temporal lobes on the sides. 

The temporal lobes lie below and behind the fissure 
of Sylvius along the sides of the cranial cavity. 

Convolutions. — Each lobe of the cerebrum is divided 
into several convolutions by little winding ditches, called 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 37 

sulci. The areas between the sulci are the convolutions, 
and not the ditches as sometimes understood. 

Matter of Cerehrum.^The cerebrum is composed of 
both white and gray nervous matter. The gray matter 
forms a thin covering over the white matter in each 
hemisphere. It has been compared to the peel of an 
orange. This covering of gray matter is the cortex. It 
is of different thickness in different persons, but will 
perhaps average one-tenth of an inch in thickness. In 
some brains it is one-eighth of an inch thick and in some 
not more than half so thick. Daniel Webster had a cor- 
tex one-sixteenth of an inch in thickness. 

Within, the cerebrum is almost w^holly a great 
mass of w^hite matter consisting of nerve fibers. There 
are though ganglia of gray matter scattered around to 
some extent among the fibers. The cortex is made up 
almost wholly of nerve cells. 

Functions of the Cerebrum. — The functions of the 
cerebrum are no doubt various, but the most important 
is that it contains the centers of all action we can rightly 
call mental. The centers of consciousness, attention, 
perception, judgment, reasoning, love, hate, and the will 
are in the cortex of the cerebral hemispheres. 



CHAPTER IV. 

ACTIVITY. 

Nature of Activity. — The mind sees objects in one 
position at one time and in other positions at other times. 
Thus we see a man in Chicago and some time later we see 
him in New York ; we see a bird on the ground, then in a 
tree; we see a horse in the field in one place, then in 
another place. Now we see the train beyond the bridge, 
then this side the bridge. We say the objects have 
moved, changed, or acted. Do we see objects move, or do 
we see them in merely different places at different times ? 
If the object does not seem to come to rest in different 
places we say we see it move, but if we see it in one place 
now, and later see it in another place we say we see it 
has moved. But we are just as certain in one case as in 
the other. Strictly speaking we do not see motion, nor 
do we see the object move. We see the object in different 
places at different times, for which we can account only 
by believing it moves. 

Again we see an object in one condition at one time 
and in a different condition at another time. Thus we 
find the road, muddy to-day, solid to-morrow; covered 
with snow a short time ago, bare now. We find our 
friends sorrowful now, happy at another time; in a 
good humor now, angry at another time. We find the 
stove hot now, cold at another time; new now, old at 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 39 

another time. We find ourselves feeling well now, bad 
at another time; vivacious now, weary at another time. 
And we say all these things change, act or move. We 
can account for their being in different conditions at 
different times in no other way. 

It will thus be seen that change, activity, and motion 
are but the presupposition of the mind's thinking objects 
in different positions or conditions at different times. 
The following is the definition for activity: 

Activity is the presupposition of the mind's think^ 
ing objects in different positions or conditions at differ- 
ent times. 

Classes of Activity. — In our studies at present we 
are concerned with the activity only of the human mind 
and human body. In considering such activity we have 
not to observe very long to see that there are activities 
of both the mind and the body which go on without our 
intentionally directing them; also, that there are 
activities of both the mind and the body that we do 
intentionally direct. These dift'erences among our 
activities give basis for the following classes : 

1. Involuntary activity. 

2. Voluntary activity. 

Involuntary Activity. — Observation shows us that 
some of the activity of the body, such as coughing, 
sneezing, heart-beating, etc., is carried on without our 
intentionally directing it; also, that mental activity 
occurs in the same way, as the wandering of our minds 
from object to object when we sit down to rest mentally 
and physically. Mental activity thus as well as physical 



40 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

activity is involuntary. The following is the formal 
definition for involuntary activity : 

Involuntary activity is that hind of activity which 
the mind does not intentionally direct. 

Voluntary Activity. — Again observation of our 
activities reveals to us that such activities as writing, 
throwing, picking up objects, playing tennis and sewing 
are physical activities which are intentionally directed. 
Also that such activities as solving problems in mathe- 
matics, analyzing sentences in grammar, studying an 
experiment in science, or interpreting a piece of 
literature are mental activities which are intentionally 
directed. Thus again both physical and mental activities 
are voluntary. The following is the formal definition 
for voluntary activity : 

Voluntary activity is that kind of activity which is 
intentionally directed. 

Reflex Action. — If the foot of a sleeper is pricked he 
will often withdraw his foot without ever knowing any- 
thing about it. If a decapitated frog has acid placed 
upon its leg or flank it will use one or both feet to brush 
it away. ' * If the soles of the feet of a man whose spinal 
cord is injured anywhere above the sacral region be 
tickled, it often happens that his legs will be suddenly 
drawn up, though the man cannot feel the tickling, and 
can not of his own will draw up his legs. ' ' 

Again a loud report or a sudden motion toward the 
eyes makes one jump unintentionally. 

It should be noticed in all such action first that the 
action is muscular or glandular and, since muscles act 
only in response to nervous action, also nervous ; that is 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 41 

neuro-muscular or neuro-glandular action; secondly, 
that there is always an external stimulus; and thirdly, 
that the action is uncontrolled hy the mind. 

Such action as the action studied above is reflex 
action, and the following is the formal definition for it: 

Keflex action is that kind of action caused hy some 
external stimulus and uncontrolled hy the mind. 

Or a second way of putting it is as follows, since it 
is action not intentionally directed: 

Be flex action is involuntary neuro-muscular or 
neuro-glandular action caused hy some external stimulus. 

The Process. — The process of reflex action is as fol- 
lows : a disturbance is caused in some nerve center by an 
external stimulus; without being transmitted to the 
higher nerve centers of intentional control, or before the 
higher nerve centers of intentional control have time to 
act, an impulse is sent out and produces muscular action. 
The nerve centers which control reflex action are mostly 
found in the spinal cord, but there are also reflex centers 
in the brain. 

Classes of Reflex Action. — In the case of the man 
who draws his feet up when they are tickled, there is no 
consciousness of the stimulus nor of the action; but in 
the case of the one who jumps because of the loud noise, 
there is consciousness of both the stimulus and the action. 
These differences give basis for two classes of reflex 
action. 

1. Unconscious. 

2. Conscious. 

Illustration. — When the dim rays of light come into 
the pupil of the eye they act as a stimulus which causes 



42 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

the muscles of the iris to so act as to enlarge the pupil. 
Also when too bright rays come into the pupil they cause 
the muscles of the iris to so act that the pupil is made 
smaller. 

The presence of the food in the stomach acts as a 
stimulus which causes the stomach to blush; and the 
food in the intestines acts as a stimulus which causes 
the liver to secrete the bile. All these are illustrations 
of unconscious reflex action. 

Illustration. — A little thought shows us that in 
coughing and sneezing we are most usually conscious of 
both the stimulus and the action. So coughing and 
sneezing are frequently good examples of conscious 
reflex action. We are frequently painfully conscious 
of both the stimulus and the action and try in vain to 
prevent the action, or to remove the stimulus. Also when 
we jump at a loud noise we are conscious of the stimulus 
and also of the action. Such are good examples of con- 
scious reflex action. 

Further Classes of Reflex Action. — By observing 
reflex action from another point of view we see that such 
instances of it as coughing, sneezing, and the movements 
of digestion are reflexes with which we are born. But if 
one strikes his foot against something and starts to fall, 
his hands will be thrown out to break the force of the 
fall, and many movements in walking, skating, riding a 
bicycle, which many authors call reflex, if reflexes, are 
not those with w^hich we are born. These differences in 
these actions give basis for the following : 

1. Original reflex action. 

2. Acquired reflex action. 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 43 

Original Reflex Action. — It is perfectly clear that 
one is born with many reflexes. In addition to those 
mentioned above are winking, the secretion of saliva, the 
secretion of tears, and the adjusting of the eyes to see 
objects near and far. 

Acquired Reflex Action. — In cases of walking, skat- 
ing, etc., it is not clear to every one that they ought to be 
called reflex action. They are acquired without any 
doubt, but they seem to be actions which were at one time 
voluntary but have become more or less automatic. A 
definite external stimulus is lacking. However, they are 
considered by some authorities as acquired reflex actions, 
and if there be such action, they are examples of it. 

Functions of Reflex Action. — The functions of 
reflex action are at any rate three : 

1. To carry on the routine work of the body. 

2. To carry on functions of the body when one is 
unconscious. 

3. To protect the body in cases which require 
quicker action than action intentionally directed. 

Impulsive Action. — It is necessary for us to remem- 
ber that a7i impulse is an excess of energy, or a surplus 
of force. Children often when they are asleep throw 
their hands, legs and feet about, also their whole bodies. 
Such actions are caused by the tension in the nerve cen- 
ters due to the excess of energy stored there. This tension 
is probably due to the effect of the blood on the nerve 
centers. At any rate there is no doubt that the tension 
exists and when it becomes too great an impulse starts 
from the nerve center and produces action. Such action 
is called impulsive action. Persons who have many 



44 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

impulsive actions are called nervous persons. The fol- 
lowing is the formal statement for impulsive action : 

Impulsive action is that hind of action caused merely 
hy an impulse arising from the tension in the nerve 
center. 

Kinds of Impulsive Actio7i. — Some cases of impul- 
sive action are purposeless; that is, they are not put 
forth to do any useful work. Of such impulsive actions, 
the child's throwing itself about in its sleep, and pro- 
truding and chewing its tongue when learning to write 
are examples. 

Again in such impulsive action as breathing and 
heartbeating the action is purposive; that is, it is put 
forth to do some useful work. These differences give 
basis for dividing impulsive action into the following 
classes : 

1. Purposeless impulsive action. 

2. Automatic action, or purposive impulsive 
action. Thus automatic action is action resulting from 
impulses originating in nerve centers without the 
stimulus to an afferent nerve fiber. 

Kinds of Voluntary Action. — ^Voluntary action, or 
intentionally directed action, is of two kinds. First, one 
frequently acts without reflection. Thus some one strikes 
a person and he at once strikes back. The bell rings and 
one starts to his class. One sees some body fall down and 
stops to help him up. One claps his hands when he has 
listened to a piece of music. 

Again one contemplates taking a journey, or bujdng 
a farm, or going into business and reflects sometimes for 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 45 

a long time on such action. These differences furnish 
basis for dividing voluntary action into two classes : 

1. Unreflective. 

2. Deliberative, or reflective. 



CHAPTER V. 
MIND AND BODY. 

Connection of Mind and Body. — Every one knows 
there is an intimate connection between the mind and 
body. But we perhaps at present do not know more of 
this connection than the mere beginning, the a, b, c of it, 
so to speak. We all know that prolonged physical work 
will produce mental fatigue, and that prolonged mental 
work will produce physical fatigue. Bodily injuries pro- 
duce pain, but in cases of mental excitement frequently 
there is no pain until the excitement is over. Good news 
or bad news may remove hunger, and persons have been 
scared to death, or frightened into illness. Embarrass- 
ment makes the mouth dry and anger may make it bitter. 

All these and many other facts indicate a general 
intimate connection between mind and body. 

Effect of Suggestion. — If it is suggested to one that a 
certain bodily condition exists or will exist, this sug- 
gestion has much influence in producing such physical 
condition. Headaches and toothaches have been stopped 
by suggestion. 

''A house surgeon in a French hospital experi- 
mented with one hundred patients, giving them sugared 
water. Then, with a great show of fear, he pretended 
that he had made a mistake and given them an emetic 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 47 

instead of the proper medicine. Dr. Tuke says: 'The 
result may easily be anticipated by those who can esti- 
mate the influence of the imagination. No fewer than 
eighty — four-fifths — were unmistakably sick.' " 

Most remarkable changes of the body, even to the 
blistering of the skin, the change of the blood supply to 
parts of the body, the disturbance of digestion, and even 
death may result from suggestion, if various good author- 
ities are to be believed. And suggestion here means that 
the person believes that the bodily condition either exists 
or will exist. The influence of the mind over the body is 
very powerful. 

Opinion of Greeks. — Just what part of the body the 
mind is most closely connected with has for more than 
two thousand years been a subject of study. The Greeks 
studied this question and reached various conclusions. 
Plato believed that the brain is the seat of the mind, but 
Aristotle, the greatest Greek philosopher, rejected this 
idea. 

Brain Injury and Consciousness. — The connection 
between consciousness and the brain is closer than 
between consciousness and any other part of the body. 
It is well known that a blow upon the head produces 
unconsciousness by producing concussion of the brain. 
A blow on almost any other part of the body only 
produces pain. A blow upon the heart might produce 
unconsciousness, but that is because it would disturb the 
blood supply of the brain. Since consciousness is a 
mental thing, a state of the mind, this indicates con- 
nection between the brain and the mind. 

Nerves and Consciousness. — It is because of the con- 



48 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

nection by nerve fibers between any pai t of the body that 
may be touched or injured and the brain that the mind 
knows of the touch or injury. Cut the nerve fibers so 
that they can transmit no impulses to the brain, and the 
mind neither knows of an injury nor feels the pain from 
it. This is because the brain is disconnected from the 
injured part. But knowing and feeling are activities of 
the mind. Thus again there is no mental work without 
brain work, and a connection must exist. 

The Blood, the Brain and the Mind. — Any distur- 
bance of the blood supply to the brain always produces 
a corresponding disturbance of the mind. There is a 
case on record of a man who had an unusually fine 
memory. He had a spell of illness which left him with 
enfeebled heart action for more than a year. During 
this time his memory was almost gone. When he recov- 
ered from the disturbance to his heart action, his 
splendid memory returned to him. The cause of the poor 
memory was the poor blood supply to the brain. 

Again it is a common observation that bad air makes 
attention and learning difficult and many times entirely 
impossible. This is because of the mental condition 
induced by blood improperly aerated acting on the brain. 

Mental action causes an increase in the temperature 
of the brain. Dr. Lombard, a noted investigator says: 
"every cause that attracts the attention — a noise, or the 
sight of some person or other object — produces elevation 
of temperature. An elevation of temperature also occurs 
under the influence of an emotion, or during an interest- 
ing reading aloud. ' ' 

"While a woman was being subjected to a test of 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 49 

this sort, from no apparent cause her temperature sud- 
denly arose. The explanation was that she had at that 
moment caught sight of a skull in the room. 

"From experiments on animals, we learn that the 
active use of their senses causes a rise in cerebral temper- 
ature. A German investigator found that when he pre- 
sented something not good to eat to the nostrils of a dog, 
the momentary sniff was accompanied by a slight rise 
in temperature. When a package containing a piece of 
meat was offered, the temperature was higher, because of 
more lively emotional interest." 

An Italian investigator by the name of Mosso 
devised a table balanced so nicely that a man might lie 
on it without disturbing its equilibrium. By introduc- 
ing some subject that quickened the action of the mind 
he found that thus the balance was immediately 
destroyed. ' ' A sudden noise, an interesting thought, any- 
thing that increased the activity of consciousness, would 
cause the head end of the table to sink down as quickly 
as if a weight had been placed upon it." This is prob- 
ably caused by an increased amount of blood in the brain. 

Localization of Functions. — The brain has its work 
systematized to a greater or less degree. There are cer- 
tain areas in it which have specific functions to perform. 
Not all parts of the brain engage in common in any work 
the brain has to do. Each part has its own specific 
function. 

The Moto7' Zone is that part of the brain concerned 
in sending out commands to move various parts of the 
body. It lies on either side of the fissure of Rolando in 
both the frontal and occipital lobes. 



50 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

' ' So definitely has this area been mapped out, that it 
is possible to find, for the purpose of a surgical opera- 
tion, so small a center as that which moves the vocal 
cords, directs a thumb, or winks an eye." 

Sensory brain areas are those which receive impulses 
from the sense organs. And the known ones are located 
as follows: 

1. The centers of sight in the occipital lobes of the 
brain. 

2. The centers of hearing in the temporal lobes of 
the brain. 

3. The centers of smell and taste on the inner sur- 
face of the temporal lobes at the front just below the 
fissure of Sylvius. 

4. The centers of touch probably situated in the 
parietal lobes. 

There is an additional center known as the center of 
speech, or of Broca, from the man who discovered it, 
pretty definitely located. It is in the lower part of the 
frontal lobe of the left hemisphere of the brain just 
above the beginning of the fissure of Sylvius. Injury to 
it causes one to lose the power of speech. 

Phrenology.— There are various opinions popularly 
held concerning whether there is any such science as 
phrenology. We will let the following author speak on 
this point: Dr. William T. Harris says: "In later times 
different phases of the mind came to be assigned to dif- 
ferent parts of the body. The spleen was supposed to be 
the seat of hilarity and good spirits ; wisdom dwelt in the 
heart ; anger in the gall ; love in the liver ; vanity in the 
lungs. ' ' 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 51 

Some other investigators located the mind in the 
brain, and located its functions. 

"Gall, in 1789, gave the first impulse to the wide- 
spread movement under the name of phrenology. He 
was joined by Spurzheim, in 1804, who carried the sys- 
tem to England and the United States, gaining many dis- 
ciples in both countries while Gall made many influential 
converts in Paris. Gall mapped out on the skull the 
locations of mental peculiarities, which he named 
from their excessive manifestations, organs of murder, 
theft, cunning, pride, vanity, on the other hand, Spurz- 
heim attempted to systematize the organs into groups, 
and to name them from their normal manifestations." 

Other phrenologists started out in their investiga- 
tions to prove their theory more than to search for truth, 
and were thus handicapped in their investigations. 

' ' But, aside from this a priori system of psychology 
based on crude introspection, a serious objection to 
phrenology is to be found in the fact that the so-called 
'organs' are protuberances of the skull, and do not cor- 
respond to natural divisions of the brain. The 'organs' 
of perception, twelve in all, crowded together behind the 
eyes are formed by the protrusion of the outer wall of 
the skull, while the inner table, keeping close to the 
brain, leaves a 'sinus,' or chasm, between it and the 
outer. Moreover, the convolutions, which are distinctly 
marked by well established fissures or furrows (sulci), 
in no case agree with the ' organs ' as mapped out. Some 
organs are located over fissures; some unite portions of 
different convolutions. The organ of amativeness belongs 
to the cerebellum, while that of alimentiveness (another 



52 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

'propensity') belongs to the cerebrum. Bony processes 
on the skull for the insertion of muscles are (as in the 
case of 'combativeness') mistaken for brain protuber- 
ances. No account is made of the convolutions in the 
' island of Reil, ' or of those which are found in the 
median longitudinal fissure which separates the two 
hemispheres of the brain. ' ' 

These quotations sum up pretty well what the best 
psychologists think of phrenology. It is to say the most 
for it not more than a pseudo-science. 

Effect on Mind of Injury to Brain. — This is well 
shown in the case of the young man Gage who was 
' 'tamping a blasting charge in a rock with a pointed iron 
bar, three feet seven inches in length, one and one-quarter 
inches in diameter, and weighing thirteen and one- 
quarter pounds, the charge suddenly exploded. The 
iron bar, propelled with its pointed end first, entered at 
the left angle of the patient's jaw, and passed clean 
through the top of his head, near the sagital suture in 
the frontal region, and was picked up at some distance 
covered with blood and brains. The patient was for a 
moment stunned, but within an hour after the accident 
he was able to walk up a long flight of stairs and give the 
surgeon an intelligible account of the injury he had 
sustained. His life naturally was for a long time des- 
paired of; but he ultimately recovered and lived twelve 
and a half years afterward. ' ' 

Dr. Harlow before the Massachusetts Medical 
Society, said the following about his mental condition: 
"His contractors, who regarded him as the most efficient 
and capable foreman in their employ before his injury, 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 53 

considered the change in his mind so marked that they 
could not give him his place again. The equilibrium or 
balance, so to speak, between his intellectual faculties 
and animal propensities seems to have been destroyed. 
He is fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest 
profanity, which was not previously his custom, mani- 
festing but little deference to his fellows, impatient of 
restraint or advice when it conflicts with his desires, at 
times pertinaciously obstinate, yet capricious and vacil- 
lating, devising many plans of future operation, which 
are no sooner arranged than they are abandoned in turn 
for others more feasible. A child in his intellectual 
capacity and manifestations, he has the animal passions 
of a strong man. Previously to his injury, though 
untrained in the schools, he possessed a well balanced 
mind, and was looked upon by the people who knew him 
as a shrewd, smart business man, very energetic and 
persistent in executing all his plans of operation. In 
this regard, his mind was radically changed, so decidedly, 
that his friends and acquaintances said he was no longer 
Gage." 

Aphasia. — Aphasia is the the loss of the power of 
speech, the vocal organs remaining uninjured and the 
intelligence unimpaired. It results from injury to the 
brain. If the nerve cells in the center of speech in the 
left frontal lobe of the brain are diseased or injured 
aphasia results from lack of ability to control the vocal 
cords. 

Again if the nerve cells in certain places in the 
temporal lobes are injured or diseased aphasia results 
from the loss of memory of spoken words. One could 



54 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

not speak his own name or that of any friend or object 
whatever. 

Brain Size and Intelligence. — Contrary to popular 
belief there is no direct proportion between the size of 
the brain and the intelligence of the person. Brains 
ranging anywhere from forty to seventy ounces may 
belong to persons of remarkable intellectual power and 
distinguished ability. 

Dr. Joseph Simms studied for more than thirty 
years this subject in North America, continental Europe, 
Great Britain, Asia, Africa and Australia, and is thus 
capable of speaking with authority concerning it. The 
following quotations are from him : 

"Esquirol's assertion that no size or form of head 
or brain is incident to idiocy or to superior talent is 
borne out by my observation. ' ' 

Dr. Simms studied the brain weights of sixty emi- 
nent men and in comparison the brains of sixty men who 
were not eminent, some of them being feeble-minded. 
The following is what he found : 

"Taking, now, the sixty heaviest brains of persons 
not noted for intellectual greatness, we find the average 
to be 63.2 ounces. Comparing this with the average of 
sixty famous men 51.3 ounces, we find a difference in 
favor of imbeciles, idiots, criminals, and men of ordinary 
mind of 11.9 ounces. ' ' 

Claims of Phrenology. — '^ Phrenologists assert that 
each organ of a mental faculty occupies a certain posi- 
tion perceptible on the outside of the brain, with a 
definite area which they have mapped out. They also 
hold that each of these organs extends to the center of 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 55 

the base of the brain, tapering to it somewhat like a 
cone, having its base turned toward the outer world. 
They make no account of the fissures, the intervening 
sulci and anfructuosities that must cut many of these 
supposed cones, some at right and some at oblique angles. 
Then the large, long cavities or ventricles intercept and 
would hinder many of them from reaching the central, 
basilar part of the brain. The anatomical structure of 
the brain thus appears fatal to this theory of the 
organs. ' ' 

''The late Dr. 0. W. Holmes, a learned man and 
experienced physician and professor of anatomy in Har- 
vard University for thirty-five years, says: 'The walls 
of the head are double, with a great chamber of air 
between them, over the smallest and most crowded 
organs. Can you tell me how much money there is in 
a safe, which also has thick walls, by kneading the knobs 
with your fingers? So, when a man fumbles about my 
forehead, and talks about the organs of individuality, 
size, etc., I trust him as much as I should if he felt over 
the outside of my strong box, and told me that there 
was a five-dollar or a ten-dollar bill under this or that 
rivet. Perhaps there is, only he doesn't know anything 
about it. We will add that, even if he knows the inward 
dimensions of the strong box, he could not thence deter- 
mine the amount of cash deposited in it. ' " 

Convolutions and Intellectual Capacity. — "Large 
and complicated convolutions of the brain with deep 
sulci have been regarded by some persons as inseparable 
from superior powers of mind. The supposition is 
eri'oneous and groundless. The rodents, such as beavers, 



56 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

squirrels, rats, mice, etc., have but little brain and no con- 
volutions whatsoever ; yet the beaver exhibits great fore- 
sight, economy, industry, and mechanical skill in build- 
ing his dam, erecting his house, and storing up bark as 
food for the winter. ]\Ioreover, these animals live in 
societies and labor in union by ingenious methods for a 
common purpose, with nice judgment. 'So great a 
variety of labors,' says Dr. Leuret, 'is needed for the 
constructions carried on by the beaver; they include so 
many instances of well-made choice, so many accidental 
difficulties are surmounted by these animals, that it is 
impossible not to recognize in their actions the character- 
istics of a rather high intelligence.' The sheep has a 
much larger brain than the beaver, with numerous and 
complete convolutions, yet it is one of the most stupid 
of domestic animals. Again, though birds have convolu- 
tions in the cerebellum, they have none in the cere- 
brum, and yet they are more capable of education 
than any living beings except the human race. 
The eagle is complete master of the lamb; the magpie, 
the hawk, the raven, and the parrot with his talking 
powers, are not excelled in sagacity by the dog, the horse, 
or the elephant, notwithstanding the latter animals have 
brains of superior size and elaborate convolutions. 

Squirrels manifest foresight and economy in storing 
nuts for the wdnter 's use ; yet they have no brain convo- 
lutions. The cetacea, especially whales, have much 
larger brains than men, with more numerous and more 
complex convolutions and deeper sulci; yet their intel- 
ligence bears no comparison with that of the human 
race. ' ' 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 57 

*' Idiots often possess as large brains as men distin- 
guished for their intellectual power, and their brains 
have as deep sulci, and convolutions as fine, as large, 
and as complex. Our table of the common and weak- 
minded contains a mention of an idiot whose brain 
weighed fifty-three ounces, or exactly as much as 
Napoleon's, and had fine convolutions and a large 
frontal lobe, but who could never learn to speak. 

''The elephant carries a far larger brain than man, 
finely formed, broad and high in front, with much more 
numerous and complex convolutions and deeper 
anfructuosities, and yet no intelligent person would for 
a moment claim that its mind excels or even equals that 
of man. ' ' 

Growth and Development of Brain. — Growth of the 
brain means increase in weight or in bulk. At birth the 
brain of the average babe is near three-forths of a pound 
in weight or about one-eighth the weight of its body. Its 
brain grows very rapidly in the first four years and 
then slowly increases until about fifteen or sixteen 
when it reaches its full weight. A brain whose maxi- 
mum is 1,440 grams would weigh at seven years of age 
1,350 grams and at four years of age 1,325 grams, 
approximately. After the age of fifteen or sixteen the 
weight of the brain remains nearly the same till about 
fifty from which time on till death it loses in weight, 
as estimated by some authorities, at the rate of one ounce 
in ten years. 

Brain development means a perfection of the struc- 
ture of the brain. This occurs in the change in the shape 
and size and prolongations of the cells in the brain. 



58 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

While brain growth goes forward so rapidly brain 
development goes on very slowly. And when brain 
development sets in brain growth becomes slower and 
after a time ceases entirely. 



CHAPTER VI. 

MENTAL ATTRIBUTES AND CONSCIOUSNESS. 

Meaning of Attribute. — An attempt to study any- 
thing for the purpose of understanding it always con- 
sists in seeking out the attributes of that thing, and an 
object is known just to the degree that its attributes are 
discovered and learned. All knowledge thus in a general 
way grows out of the process of discovering and learning 
the attributes of objects. If one knows all the attributes 
of an object, he knows all there is to be known about 
that object. And if he knows all the attributes of 
any object, he knows a great deal about every object, 
since any object has connections with all other objects. 
Thus to know all the attributes there are to know would 
mean infinite knowledge, the knowledge of everything. 

The terms, characteristic, or mark, are terms used 
interchangeably with the term, attribute. 

Strictly speaking an attribute is indefinable, but the 
following statement characterizes it: 

A7i attribute is any characteristic of an object which 
helps the mind in knowing the object. . 

Illustration. — A certain house is large, red, 
new, rectangular, has four verandas, two chimneys, sur- 
rounded by a big lawn, has two bay windows, and is 
situated on a slope. Each of the italicized words ex- 



60 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

presses an attribute of the house; that is, it expresses 
some mark of the house which helps the mind in know- 
ing it. 

Classes of Attributes. — If we observe the attributes 
of objects very long we soon see that each object pos- 
sesses some attributes that enable the mind to know it 
from every thing else. Thus in the sentence, This knife 
in my hand is a present from mother, the italicized words 
express attributes which enable the mind to know the 
knife from all other things. Again the tower on the east 
division of the old college building has some attributes 
which enable the mind to knov»r it from all other things 
on earth. The same is true of every other object. 

And again we can observe that every object in a 
class has some attributes that belong to every other 
object in the class. Thus one triangle has just three 
angles, and so has every other one just three angles. 
One man has a vertebral column and so has every other 
man. One dog is a quadruped and so is every other dog. 
One winter is colder than summer in the temperate zones 
and so is every other one. 

Thus from this viewpoint there are two classes of 
attributes : 

1. Particular. 

2. Common. 

And the following are definitions for them : 
A particular attribute is an attribute which helps 
the mind to know its object from everything else. In the 
sentence, Niagara Falls is a grand spectacle, ''Niagara" 
expresses attributes which help the mind in knowing the 
falls from all other things. Thus "Niagara" expresses 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 61 

a particular attribute. When we talk about a particular 
object, the term, particular, means just those attributes 
which enable the mind to know the object from all 
other things. Individual is a word which means the 
same as particular. Thus an individual object and a 
particular object mean the same. Each object is a par- 
ticular object, since each object has some attributes 
which enable the mind to know it from everything else. 

A common attribute is an attribute which belongs 
alike to each object of a class of objects. Thus sweetness 
is a common attribute of sugar ; sourness, of acid ; grow- 
ing feathers, of birds; and having four feet, of horses. 

Classes of Common Attributes. — Again we observe 
that some common attributes belong to every object of 
the class but do not extend beyond that class; that is, 
do not belong to any other object besides those of the 
class. Thus growing feathers is an attribute that belongs 
to every bird of the class birds, but does not belong to 
any other object except birds; that is, does not extend 
beyond the class. 

There are also some common attributes that belong 
to every object of a class but also belong to other objects ; 
that is, extend beyond the class. Thus having two feet 
is a common attribute of birds, but it is an attribute 
also of man and monkeys. 

These differences among common attributes give 
basis for two classes : 

1. Class common attributes. 

2. Universal common attributes. 

The following are definitions for them : 

A class common attribute is a common attribute 



62 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

which does not extend beyond the objects of a class. 
Three-angledness is a class common attribute of tri- 
angles ; growing flowers, a class common attribute of one 
kind of plants. 

A universal common attribute is a common attribute 
which extends beyond the objects of a single class. Hav- 
ing wings is a universal common attribute of birds. It 
belongs to all birds, but also belongs to other things 
besides birds, to butterflies, for instance. 

It is quite common for students to make the error of 
thinking that a universal attribute is one that belongs to 
everything in the universe. But this is just what it does 
not mean. There is good reason for thinking that no 
such attribute exists. The universal attribute is an 
attribute that connects a class out with other things in 
the universe. Thus having wings connects the class, 
birds, with butterflies, bees, bugs, and other things. 

An Attribute of Mind. — A man can do various 
kinds of work. He can run, skate, cut wood, build 
houses, etc., but in order to do these various things he 
must possess various attributes. He must have weight, 
strength, etc. Thus weight and strength are attributes 
of one's body. Without these one could not run, jump, 
skate, and so on. In an analogous way the mind has 
attributes. Without these it could not do its work. The 
following is the formal statement for an attribute of 
mind: 

An attribute of mind is a fundamental character- 
istic of mind without which mind could not do its work. 
Universal Common Attributes of Mind. — The fol- 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 63 

lowing is a list of the attributes of mind most valuable 
to study : 

1. Consciousness. 

2. Attention. 

3. Apperception. 

4. Self-activity. 

5. Iterativeness. 

6. Rhythm. 

These attributes are as fundamental and necessary 
to the mind as weight or strength is to the body. They 
belong to all human minds but they also belong to some 
of the lower animals. A horse is conscious, can give 
attention, and is self-active. Thus these six attributes 
are universal common attributes of the human mind. 

Consciousness. — This is the most fundamental 
attribute of mind. Without consciousness the mind as 
we think of it could not be studied or known. 

One can at the start get a general idea of conscious- 
ness by comparing his condition of mind when he is 
very sound asleep with his condition of mind when he is 
awake. When he is awake consciousness is showing its 
influence upon the mind, but when he is sound asleep 
consciousness is not influencing the mind at all; con- 
sciousness is in abeyance. 

If one knows, he knows that he knows or knows that 
he thinks he knows that he knows ; that is, he knows his 
own mental condition. Again if one is asked a question, 
and he says he does not know the answer to it, it is 
because he knows the condition of his own mind. If 
one is insulted, he feels hurt or angry and he knows that 
he feels hurt or angry ; that is, he knows his own mental 



64 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

condition. If one is thinking about Niagara Falls, he 
knows that his mind is active ; that is, he knows his own 
mental activities. If one is solving a problem in 
arithmetic, he knows that his mind is active on arith- 
metic; that is, he knows his own mental activity. The 
mind thus knows itself. 

What enables the mind thus to know itself ; that is, 
its own conditions and activities? Consciousness. The 
mind is able to do this because of the attribute of con- 
sciousness. Thus we reach the following statement for 
consciousness : 

Consciousness is that attribute of mind by virtue of 
which the mind knows itself; its own conditions and 
activities. 

Thus by virtue of consciousness the mind is differ- 
ent from anything else known to us. Mind is the only 
thing that can know itself. Through consciousness the 
mind knows its own sorrows, pleasures, pains, hopes, 
aspirations, successes, disappointments, loves, hates, 
ideals and motives, and it knows it knows these, and 
knows itself as the knower. 

Classes of Consciousness. — If one observes his own 
consciousness by means of introspection he will see that 
at some times he seems to be conscious of what is in his 
own mind. Thus we ask one what he is thinking about 
and he says he is thinking of his own thinking; that is, 
of what is, so to speak, passing through his mind. Thus 
one thinks of his own motives or intentions. Or he 
thinks of his own sorrow or depression. 

At another time one seems to be conscious of some- 
thing not in his mind. Thus one seems to be conscious 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 65 

of a friend, a house, a tree, a flower, a dewdrop or an 
ocean. These differences in consciousness give basis 
for two classes of consciousness. First, that kind by 
which we seem to be conscious of some object outside 
the mind. Secondly, that kind of consciousness by 
which we seem to be conscious of something in the mind. 

1. Ohjective consciousness. 

2. Subjective consciousness. 

The following are the formal statements for them : 

Objective consciousness is that kind of conscious- 
ness by which the mind seems to be aware of something 
outside the mind. 

Subjective consciousness is that kind of conscious- 
ness by which the mind seems to be aware of something 
within the mind. 

Objects of Consciousness. — Observation shows us 
that we may be conscious of, in general, two kinds of 
things: first, physical things; secondly, mental things. 

Nature of an Object. — The true idea of an object 
is frequently not to be found in the minds of those who 
should have it. In fact many persons have but a re- 
stricted idea of an object. It is quite conunon to find 
persons who think only those things which occupy space 
and have weight are objects. To such persons such 
things as trees, rocks, houses, horses, etc. seem to 
be objects, but such things as character, honor, beauty, 
virtue, wisdom, etc. do not seem to be objects. The view 
that only those things which possess weight and occupy 
space are objects is narrow and erroneous. 

The derivation of the word, object, furnishes a key 
to the right idea of what an object is. The word is from 



66 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY^ 

oh, against, and ject, thrown. Thus an object is any- 
thing which is thrown against the mind as a challenge 
to its activities. That is to say, anything the mind thinks 
about is an object. The following is the formal defini- 
tion for an object: 

An object is anything ahout which the mind can 
think. 

Classes of objects. — Observation shows us that the 
mind sometimes thinks of such objects as flowers, trees, 
men, horses, books, and mountains; that is, about ob- 
jects which occupy space. 

And again the mind thinks about such objects as 
honor, virtue, character, purity, whiteness, sweetness, 
love, hate, sorrow, misfortune and happiness; that is, 
about objects which do not occupy space. This differ- 
ence in objects about which the mind thinks furnishes 
basis for two classes of objects : 1. Material. 2. Im- 
material. 

The following are the formal definitions for them: 
A material object is an object which occupies space. 
An immaterial object is an object which does not oc- 
cupy space. 

The things which the mind is conscious of are thus 
both physical and mental . That is to say, the mind is 
conscious at some times of material objects and at other 
times of immaterial objects. 

Fields of Consciousness. — If one examines his mind 
carefully by introspection he will find that at almost 
any time when he is awake there are many things more 
or less in one's mind. For instance, one sits in the 
library reading a book. The content of what he is read- 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 67 

ing is in his mind, so are various sounds, other persons 
in the library, the trees which appear through the 
window, book cases, the touch of his clothing, and so on, 
perhaps. It is true that most of these are only dimly in 
the mind, but in the mind all the same. Thus what one 
has in mind at any one time constitutes a kind of con- 
scious field. 

Again we observe that most of what we have had in 
our minds in the past and what we say we know we do 
not have in mind at any one time. Indeed we have very 
little of what we know in our consciousness at one time. 
So there is a great field of what we have known which 
constitutes a sort of subconscious field. These differ- 
ences in our minds give grounds for the two classes of 
conscious fields. 

1. The conscious field. 

2. The subconscious field. 

The Conscious Field. — The conscious field consists 
of all that one has in consciousness at any one time, 
either dimly or clearly. One's conscious life is a suc- 
cession of these fields. They always have various things 
in them ; that is, they are complex. ' ' They contain sen- 
sations of our bodies and of the objects around us, 
memories of past experiences and thoughts of distant 
things, feelings of satisfaction and dissatisfaction, 
desires and aversions, and other emotional conditions, 
together with determinations of the will, in every variety 
of permutation and combination. ' ' 

The conscious field always has something in it which 
is clearly in consciousness. This is called the center, or 
focus of the conscious field. All of those things in the 



68 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

conscious field which are but dimly in consciousness 
constitute what is called the margin of the conscious 
field. 

The Subconscious Field. — The subconscious field 
is made up of all that the mind has ever had in con- 
sciousness but which it does not have in consciousness at 
any time. "At any one moment we are not conscious 
of a thousandth part of what we know. It is well that 
such is the case; for when we are studying an object 
under a microscope, trying to memorize poetry, demon- 
strating a geometrical proposition, or learning a Latin 
verb, we should not want all we knew of history and 
physics, or images of the persons, trees, dogs, birds, or 
horses, that we remembered, to rush into our minds at 
the same time. If they did so, our mental confusion 
would be indescribable. ' ' 

Differences in States of Consciousness. — By obser- 
vation through introspection it may be seen that our 
conscious states differ in the following respects : 

1. They differ in intensity. At one time, one is 
slightly in pain; at another, in excrutiating pain. At 
one time, one is a little sad; at another crushed with 
sorrow. At one time, one is studying slightly; at 
another, very hard. 

2. They differ in quality. At one time, our con- 
sciousness is painful; at another time, pleasurable. At 
one time, our consciousness is one of surprise ; at another 
time, one of being bored. These differ in quality. 

3. They differ in the extent of the conscious field. 
Sometimes there are but few things in the conscious field 
compared with what there are in it at other times. If 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 69 

one were intently studying the petals^ of a primrose in 
his hand his conscious field would be narrow as compared 
with his conscious field when he is looking at a landscape 
in the distance. 

4. They differ in the speed with which objects 
cross the conscious field. At one time, ideas succeed each 
other very slowly in consciousness ; at another time, they 
jostle each other in a mad rush, and go cross the con- 
scious field at a galloping pace. 

Functions of Consciousness. — Consciousness has 
several functions, the chief ones of which are as follows : 

1. It enables the mind to know one mental exper- 
ience from another. This function is of the highest 
importance to the mind. If the mind could not tell one 
mental experience from another it could not know a 
pebble from a pumpkin; a dewdrop from an ocean; a 
man from a mushroom; a mouse from a muUen stalk; a 
hat from a hammer, nor a cabbage from a carrot. In 
short, one could never get started in getting knowledge. 

2. It enables the mind to know the value of its 
experiences to itself. Without this function of con- 
sciousness the mind would never know what of its exper- 
iences to avoid and what to repeat. It could not tell 
which are good for it and which are bad for it. It could 
not tell whether good intentions or bad intentions are to 
be cultivated. 

3. It enables the mind to direct its activities so as 
to do mental work. Without consciousness the mind's 
activities would scatter over all creation as they do in 
dreams. No one thing could be held in mind long 
enough to be thought out. Mental activity would waste 



70 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

itself in aimless wandering, if consciousness did not 
cling to some purpose. 

4. It enables one properly to estimate himself. 
Since consciousness enables one to know the condition of 
his own mind, it enables him to estimate himself. It 
enables one to know how much he knows, how much his 
knowledge is limited, the purity of his motives, the 
quality of his intentions and the strength of his will 
power; in short, to know himself. 

Education of Consciousness. — One's consciousness 
is educated when it reveals accurately to him his mental 
conditions. The difference between the man whose con- 
sciousness is educated and the one whose consciousness 
is not educated lies in the fact that one whose conscious- 
ness is educated knows pretty accurately his own worth, 
while the one whose consciousness is not educated 
usually either overestimates or underestimates himself. 
Consciusness becomes educated by study and research, 
just as one grows in any kind of education. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ATTENTION. 

Nature of Attention, — The most persistent thing of 
which the human soul is conscious is change. Changes 
in the mind's environment and changes in the mind 
itself are the things studied in every study of the mind. 
Any one of these changes definite enough to be separated 
from other changes is an experience. Thus an exper- 
ience is a change of some sort, and a mental experience 
is a mental change of some sort. Mental life is a suc- 
cession of these changes or experiences, and so is physical 
life. 

Most of our mental experiences go forward without 
the mind's being clearly conscious of them. The mind 
though has the power of bringing any experience clearly 
into consciousness and of focusing its energy upon it 
after it is in consciousness. This the mind is able to do 
because of the attribute of attention. 

Thus the mind is able to do the two following things 
because of attention ; 

1. The bringing of some experience clearly into 
consciousness. 

2. The focusing of its energy upon it. 

A little introspective study shows that at most 
times there are many thing^s in one's mind. As one sits 



72 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

in his study he sees books, furniture, pens, pencils, 
papers, the scenery outside his window, and many other 
things ; he, perhaps, hears children shouting at play, the 
singing of birds, the cackling of chickens, the rushing of 
the train, the clatter of wagons on the road, the ticking 
of the clock, and so on. In short, a large number of 
things are more or less in his consciousness. Most of 
these things, or better the experiences aroused by these 
things, are only dimly in consciousness. But because of 
the attribute of attention the mind is able to exalt 
any one of these dimly conscious experiences into clear 
consciousness. And this is the first thing the mind is 
able to do because of attention. It is a differentiating 
function of the mind. It is the process of separating 
one experience from a more or less integrated mass form- 
ing a substratum in consciousness. 

The second thing which the mind can do because of 
attention is that of narrowing down the field of con- 
sciousness. It is what is usually called concentration. 
It is somewhat analogous to focusing the rays of the sun 
by means of a lens, which consists in narrowing down 
the focal field by converging the rays toward a point. 

From the above study the following definition of 
attention is reached : 

Attention is that attribute of the mind hy virtue of 
which the mind hrings some experience clearly into con- 
sciousness and focuses its energy upon it. 

Illustration. — One is sitting in his room engaged in 
reading the morning paper. The clock is sitting upon 
the mantel shelf ticking away as loudly as usual, but he 
does not hear it clearly, though there is a sort of dim 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 73 

consciousness of its ticking. Suppose some one says 
"How clearly the clock ticks! " Immediately he hears 
it clearly. That is to say, the mind brings clearly into 
consciousness the experience aroused by the ticking of 
the clock and focuses its energy upon it. 

Condition of Attention. — There are certain condi- 
tions which must exist in order to have attention of any 
kind, good, bad or indifferent. These may be grouped as 
follows : 

1. The condition of the self stimulated. 

2. The nature of the stimulus stimulating. 

In order to give good attention one must have a 
normal healthy nervous system and a normal mind in a 
healthy natural condition. No one suffering from 
disease, fatigue, worry, inferior or unhealthy nervous 
organization can rightly be expected to give vigorous 
and prolonged attention. It is a physical and mental 
impossibility. This may be summed up in the state- 
ment that one condition necessary to vigorous, prolonged 
attention is a healthy vigorous tone of the self, both 
mental and physical. 

From the student's point of view there are at any 
rate four things fatal to habits of vigorous, concentrated, 
prolonged attention. They are as follows : 

1. Food insufficient in quality or quantity. 

2. Insufficient physical exercise. 

3. Insufficient pure, fresh air. 

4. Insufficient quantity of sleep. 

Food insufficient in quantity and quality aft'ects the 
vigor and tone of the whole being physically. And the 



74 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

relation between physical and mental is so close that the 
power of attention suffers in a corresponding degree. 

It is a law of life that a healthy state of any organ 
or system of organs is maintained only by a healthful 
amount of exercise. Lack of exercise brings on languor, 
ennui and blase. These conditions, due to the depen- 
dence of one's mental life upon the physical, make 
strongly against attention. 

Bad air is the bane not only of health in the school- 
room, but of comfort, vivacity and all that goes to make 
school life a pleasure and a success. Every adult 
should have 3,000 cubic feet of fresh air per hour, or 
fifty cubic feet per minute as the minimum for the best 
attention. Of course, people can live on a smaller 
quantity of fresh air. It is not the intention to say they 
can not. But it is the intention to say that vigorous, 
prolonged, concentrated attention can not be maintained 
to its maximum under any other conditions. 

Lack of sleep is a common and prolific source of 
poor attention in school work. No one who is sleepy can 
give very good attention to anything. It does not, how- 
ever, seem generally to be understood that every one 
should have as the minimum seven hours of sleep in 
every twenty-four preferably in a majority of cases 
from 11 :00 p. m. to 6 :00 a. m. It is worthy of emphasis 
that this is the minimum. It is also true that in the 
cases of most persons more than seven hours in twenty- 
four are demanded. Again it is not the inten- 
tion to say that one can not live on fewer than seven 
hours of sleep in every twenty-four, but it is the inten- 
tion to say that he can not feel vigorous, happy. 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 75 

sweet-tempered; in short, be his best self, continuously 
on less than seven hours of sleep in every twenty-four. 
It is certainly a well established truth that good atten- 
tion demands seven or more hours of sleep in every 
twenty-four. 

The kind of stimulus has much to do with the 
attention. The reason why some things in themselves 
seem to attract and hold the attention is due to the 
stimulus they furnish. A blinding flash of lightning or 
a terrific crash of thunder will attract one's attention 
under almost any set of circumstances. A runaway 
horse dashing down the street will do the same thing. 

A story is told of a clergyman who, talking in loud, 
monotonous tones, was astonished to see many of his 
congregation sleeping. He spoke a sentence or two in a 
hollow whisper and several of them awoke with a start. 
Thus change in the stimulus attracts attention. It is the 
quality of the stimulus which the teacher manipulates in 
holding the attention of his students. 

Classes of Attention on Basis of Direction.— At 
times one seems to be attending to things outside of his 
mind, and at other times he finds himself attending to 
things in his mind. Said in another way, sometimes 
one's attention is directed inward and sometimes out- 
ward. Thus on this basis there are two classes of atten- 
ion, and they are called : 

'1. External. 

2. Internal. 

External attention is that kind of attention the 
stimulus of which is outside the mind, 



76 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

Internal attention is that kind of attention the 
stimulus of which is in the mind. 

Illustration. — If one is sitting at his window and 
watching intently the frolics of the jaybirds among the 
trees upon his lawn, his attention is external. But if he 
is thinking of his own motives, hopes, aspirations, likes, 
dislikes, and so on, his attention is the internal kind. 

Classes of Attention on Basis of Effort. — By intro- 
spective study of our own attention we discover that at 
some times we give attention without any seeming effort, 
while at other times conscious effort is required to give 
attention. In the first case the attractiveness of the 
stimulus is so great that the mind is held to it without 
any apparent effort, while in the second case the stimulus 
fails to hold the mind. In either kind of attention there 
is involved some effort, but in the one kind the effort is 
not a conscious one, while in the other there is peculiarly 
a conscious effort. This difference in attention gives 
basis for dividing attention into two classes : 

1. Non-voluntary. 

2. Voluntary. 

The following are formal definitions for them : 

Non-voluntary attention is that kind of attention in 
which no conscious effort is involved. 

Voluntary attention is that kind of attention in 
which a conscious effort is involved. 

It is popularly thought that voluntary attention is 
a much higher kind than the non- voluntary and that it 
is the kind possessed by men and women of great ability, 
by geniuses. In fact one frequently hears it said that 
the only difference between the genius and the ordinary 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 77 

man is in the power of voluntary attention. A little 
introspective thought, though, shows that voluntary 
attention is not of long continuous duration with any 
one. When the mind strays away from the object of 
attention, by and effort it is hauled back and forced upon 
it. But if the mind stays there very long, it will be 
found that what was voluntary attention has changed 
into the non- voluntary kind and the mind is held by the 
attractiveness of the stimulus. Unless there is such 
attractiveness about the object of attention, the mind can 
not stay there and no attention of any kind will exist for 
it. The effort of attention will prove to be spasmodic 
attempts at short intervals to hold the mind upon some 
object of consideration. Thus voluntary attention is a 
momentary affair and is itself very quickly exhausted in 
the effort. 

The attention of the genius is almost wholly of the 
non-voluntary kind. He attends with concentration to 
any object under consideration for a long time because 
it awakens so many new and interesting connections and 
suggests all sorts of pleasant associations, thus opening 
up various and multiform avenues of thought. 

- -To the ordinary man not so richly endowed the con- 
nections are fewer, and since there is nothing to hold the 
mind, it soon wanders, and it is said to lack concentra- 
tion. Thus the ordinary mind has much more opportu- 
nity to exercise voluntary attention than the mind of the 
genius. It is much more of a necessity for the ordinary 
mind to exercise voluntary attention than it is for the 
mind of the genius. 

Basis of Attention. — The basis of attention is 



78 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

interest. And by this is meant the mind gives attention 
to that in which it is interested and does not give atten- 
tion to that in which it has no interest. This is true, but 
what is interest ? 

To the mind dissatisfied with vagueness, it is hardly 
sufficient merely to say or think that interest is the basis 
of attention. The meaning of interest must be made 
more definite. 

An examination of various cases of interest shows 
that when one is interested in a thing he has a feeling 
for that thing. Thus one^s interest in a thrilling story 
is his feeling for that story; and a child's interest in 
sweetmeats is his feeling for sweetmeats. Thus interest 
is a feeling. But in interest there is always the addi- 
tional thought that the object or action in which the 
mind is interested is the cause of the feeling, and the 
mind so regards it. Thus the following definition of 
interest is reached : 

Interest is any feeling for an object or action which 
the mind regards the cause of the feeling. 

One's interest in art is his feeling for art, the mind 
regarding the art as the cause of the feeling. And a 
man's interest in his family is his feeling for his family 
accompanied by the idea that the family is the cause of 
the feeling. 

Classes of Interest. — An examination of one's inter- 
ests show^s that he is interested in some things because of 
themselves and in some other things not because of them- 
selves, but because they are a means to some other thing. 
Thus much of the routine of daily labor is done because 
not of interest in it as an end, but because of interest in 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 79 

it as a means to something beyond, the money received 
for it or some other kind of remuneration. One's inter- 
est in an absorbing piece of music or a thrilling narra- 
tion points to nothing beyond itself. It is exhausted in 
the act. This difference in our interests is basis for 
classifying them into : 

1. Direct. 

2. Indirect. 

The following are definitions for these two classes 
of interest : 

Direct interest is that hind of interest which the 
mind has for something as an end. 

Indirect interest is that ki7id of interest which the 
mind has in something as a mere means to an end beyond. 

Direct interest is the interest with which one works 
when he loves his work. It is the interest which fur- 
nishes the basis for most of life's happiness. It isHhe 
only kind of interest which is an effective guarantee of 
good work. Work in which there is a direct interest is 
invariably better done, and there is much pleasure in 
doing it. Work done with only an indirect interest is 
drudgery and the tendency always is to slight it. 

The art of correct living is largely included in learn- 
ing to do one's work with a direct interest in the neces- 
sities and vicissitudes of daily life. All work however 
humble or hard may thus have pleasure in it. 

From the teacher's point of view the aim should 
always be to secure direct interest from the children in 
their work. And the teacher who is able to do this 
largely find his opportunities for helping his children 
broad, and his satisfaction in his own endeavor deep. 



80 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

No teacher, though, can secure direct interest from 
all his pupils at all times. The varying conditions of 
life, the influences of heredity, the previous environment 
and disposition of children with their limitations of 
knowledge make it many times an impossibility. From 
which it turns out that some aspects of school work will 
always be drudgery to some children, much the same as 
some aspects of life's work will always be drudgery to 
many people. In such cases the work must be done with 
an indirect interest. 

People are often unaware that they are criticising 
themselves when they say that they can not get inter- 
ested in this or that. The natural healthy attitude of 
the mind is interest in all things . And to be unable to 
get interested in a thing is a sure indication of an un- 
healthy attitude of mind or of a mind with such a small 
store of knowledge that the new thing has few or no con- 
nections, or associations, or it may be an indication of 
both, as it frequently is. One who says he can not get 
interested in a thing is thus saying that he is so ignorant, 
that he does not know enough about it to be interested 
or that he is not healthy in mind. Thus one who is not 
able to get interested in a subject should look within for 
the difficulty and not outward. He will also do well to 
keep still about it, unless it is the desire to show an ab- 
normal, unhealthy condition of his soul or an undevel- 
oped ignorant state of the self. 

From the above it is seen that people's interests are 
quite usually too shallow and too narrow. That is to say, 
most persons are not deeply enough interested in enough 
things. Most persons have a sort of fleeting shallow in- 



INa?RODUCTJON TO PSYCHOLOGY. 81 

terest in many things, but an intensive interest in a very 
few things. Thus their lives are touched very lightly by 
most things, and they live only a very small part of life's 
possibilities. Their lives can not be full and rich and 
strong. Only deep life interests in many things can 
make the current surge full and strong. 

The Law of Interest. — The question, Why is one 
interested in a thing at all? suggests itself. If one 
studies his own interests for a short time, he will find 
that he has interest in that which gives or promises 
pleasure or pain. If one is interested in studying or 
reading Tennyson's Bugle Song, it is likely to be be- 
cause it gives him pleasure. The pleasure one has in a 
thing may be sensuous or intellectual, real or imagined. 
The child is interested in an apple or a stick of candy 
because of the sensuous pleasure it furnishes him. The 
advanced student is interested in his algebra problem 
because of the intellectual pleasure it furnishes him. 

The boy is not interested in a strapping he is exper- 
iencing because of the pleasure it furnishes, but because 
of pain. The traveler lost in the forest is not interested 
in the howling wolves because of the pleasure the howl- 
ing of the wolves furnishes, but because of the pain, but 
he is just as truly interested. 

Thus not only agreeable things but disagreeable 
things as well awaken interest. There is more than one 
way for a thing to be made interesting. 

From the above study the following law of interest 
may be stated : 

The mind is interested in whatever gives or promises 
pleasure or pain. 



82 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

Laws of Attention. — The following are statements 
for some of the most important laws of attention : 

1. The mind can not attend to uninteresting 
things. 

2. Attention to an unvarying stimulus can not long 
remain vigorous. 

3. Attention centered on an unvarying stimulus 
tends to produce a hypnotic or comatose condition. 

4. When the mind's power of attention is fatigued 
it may be rested by directing it into new channels or by 
giving one's self up to non-voluntary attention. 

Things entirely without interest never so much as 
find their way into consciousness and the mind can get 
no hold at all upon them to give them the attention. But 
many things which awaken a sort of fleeting interest 
never call forth a real effort of attention because of the 
shallow interest. The only way to secure effective atten- 
tion is to work for deep interest. We find time always 
in life's frantic struggle to attend to those things for 
which our interests are so strong that they have become 
passions. 

It is a common observation as well as a common 
experience that monotony kills attention. That is to say 
lack of variety, sameness in stimulus or sensation always 
has a deadening influence on attention. A public speaker 
who uses a monotonous tone fails to hold attention. A 
story repeated in an unvarying way ceases to hold atten- 
tion. 

The mental capacity for action in any unvarying 
direction is small, and soon becomes exhausted. As soon 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 83 

as it is exhausted the attention in that direction must of 
course cease. 

Many experiments have been conducted to show 
that attention to an unchanging stimulus will stupefy 
one and throw him into a sort of unnatural sleep or into 
a sort of comatose state, a semi-conscious condition. 

It gives some rest when the mind becomes tired of 
attending to one line of work, say history, to direct it 
into new channels, such as arithmetic, or just to let the 
mind follow its own associations in a state of relaxa- 
tion. Such rest, though, is only a matter of redistribut- 
ing the mental energy and nervous energy. Real rest 
with an increase of nervous and mental power comes 
only from cessation of attention in sleep. Sleep is the 
great restorative for all sorts of mental and physical 
fatigue. 

Importance of Attention. — "There is a constant 
struggle on the part of sensations to survive in con- 
sciousness. That sensation which we allow to take the 
most forcible hold on the attention usually wins the day. 
Jf we sit by an open window in the country on a sum- 
mer day, we may have many stimuli knocking at the 
gates of attention. ' ' Unless we select out some one thing 
and center the attention upon it, nothing but mental 
chaos results. If we give ourselves up to every pas^ng 
stimulus we belong more to our environment than we do 
to ourselves. 

For the sake of the mental habit, one can not afford 
to do less than pay such attention to any public speaker, 
teacher, or preacher as that which would enable him to 
give the chief points in synopsis of the address, if called 



84 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

upon to do SO. Practice in doing this very thing, giv- 
ing a synopsis of the address, is a most stimulating and 
helpful exercise in acquiring good habits of attention. 

Concentration. — Concentration, the power to focus 
the mind 's energy upon a small field of consciousness for 
periods of considerable duration, is frequently thought 
to be an absolutely necessary characteristic of marked 
ability. It is even thought that, if one does not possess 
this presumably happy power to a considerable degree, 
he can not amount to much as a thinker. A degree of 
power of concentration is a very desirable characteristic 
to possess, but there is a possibility of its being carried 
too far. Extreme concentration is absent-mindedness. 
It is the condition in which one forgets everything except 
the subject of immediate thought : forgets to eat ; forgets 
to answer his letters; forgets to keep his appointments; 
forgets to speak to his friends; forgets what he goes to 
market for ; in short, forgets a thousand things which the 
highest success in life demands he should remember. 
Then too much concentration, as well as too little, is at 
times both mentally and physically inconvenient. 

And it is not necessarily true that one must possess 
the power of concentration to a high degree in order to 
be a success in the world. Professor William James puts 
this truth well in the following : ' ' This concentrated type 
of attention is an elementary faculty: it is one of the 
things that might be ascertained and measured by exer- 
cises in the laboratory. But, having ascertained it in a 
number of persons, we could never rank them in a scale 
of actual and practical mental efficiency based on its 
degrees. The total mental efficiency of a man is the 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 85 

resultant of the working together of all his faculties. 
He is too complex a being for any one of them to have 
the casting vote. If any one of them do have the casting 
vote, it is more likely to be the strength of his desire and 
passion, the strength of the interest he takes in what is 
proposed. Concentration, memory, reasoning power, 
inventiveness, excellence of the senses — all are subsidiary 
to this. No matter how scatter-brained the type of a 
man's successive fields of consciousness may be, if he 
really care for his subject, he will return to it incessantly 
from his incessant wanderings, and first and last do 
more with it, and get more results from it, than another 
person whose attention may be more continuous during 
a given interval, but whose passion for the subject is of a 
more languid and less permanent sort. Some of the most 
efficient workers I know are of the ultra-scatter-brained 
type. *****! seriously think that no one of 
us need be too much distressed at his own short comings 
in this regard. Our mind may enjoy but little comfort, 
may be restless and feel confused; but it may be 
extremely efficient all the same. ' ' 



CHAPTER VIII. 

APPERCEPTION, SELF-ACTIVITY, ITERATIVENESS, 
RHYTHM. 

Nature of Apperception. — This is another attribute 
of the mind without which knowing would be an impos- 
sibility and without which feeling and willing would 
remain undeveloped. 

All learning is the mind's process of getting mean- 
ing. But to say this does not help much without one's 
having a perfectly definite idea of what meaning is. At 
first thought it seems that objects around one in the world 
have meaning, but a closer study shows that this is not 
the case. The mind in studying a thing appears to get 
meaning from it, it is true, but when it can not in any 
way connect a thing with its past experiences it gets no 
^neaning from it. If the thing has small connection with 
the mind's experiences, the mind gets small meaning 
from it. If the thing has many connections with the 
^nind's experiences, the mind gets much meaning. Thus 
in learning a thing the mind gets meaning from it just to 
the extent it has past experiences and can connect these 
with the present experiences. Now if the mind has had 
ever so many experiences but not like the ones the thing 
it is trying to learn arouses, it will get no meaning. 
Thus the mind connects the past and present experiences 
by seeing the likeness between them ; but to see likeness, 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 87 

there has at the least to be two things, and to be two 
things there must be differences. So the mind connects 
its experiences by seeing the likeness and differences 
between them. 

And from the above truths the inference is that 
meaning is the likeness and difference between our exper- 
iences and is in the mind. 

But what makes one thing put us in mind of 
another? What enables the mind to connect its exper- 
iences, the present with the past? Apperception. 
Apperception is the attribute of mind which enables the 
mind to do this, that is, connect the present with the past 
experiences. 

But this is not all that apperception enables the 
mind to do. Apperception enables the mind to change 
itself permanently with each experience. Every exper- 
ience the mind has leaves the mind a little different from 
what it was before it had the experience. The mind may 
forget the most it has learned, but it never entirely looses 
the effect of the activity it put forth in learning it. The 
mind never is again after an experience just what it w^as 
before the experience. The effect of the experience 
becomes organized into the self. 

Wliat Apperception Enables the Mind to Do. — 
From the above study it appears that the mind is able to 
do two things because of apperception. They are as fol- 
lows : 

1. It enables the mind to bring past experiences to 
bear upon the present experience in getting its meaning. 

2. It enables the mind to organize the effect of the 
present experience into itself, 



88 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

The mind learns only by bringing the past exper- 
ience to bear upon the present. It is to be noticed that it 
does this consciously some times but most usually uncon- 
sciously. Thus when one sees a flower and says that it is 
a beautiful rose, he is not usually conscious that he is 
bringing his past experience to bear upon the present, 
but he is so doing nevertheless. In some cases one is 
perfectly conscious he is bringing the past experience to 
bear upon the present one, but usually he is not. 

The organizing the eifect of the experience into the 
self may appropriately be called mental assirfiilation. 
The effect of the experience becomes a part of the tissue 
of the mind, so to speak, as the food becomes a part of 
the tissue of the body through physical assimilation. 

Definition of Apperception. — The following is the 
formal definition of apperception, obtained from the 
previous study : 

Apperception is that attribute of mind hy virtue of 
tvhich the mind brings its past experiences to hear upon 
the present experience in gettiftg its meaning, and hy 
virtue of which the effect of the present experience is 
organized into the mind. 

Illustrations. — If one who knows nothing of geology 
were w^alking down a valley and should find a rock 
almost round, but having a plane surface as if it were 
worn off by holding it on a grindstone, he Avould prob- 
ably get much the same meaning as he would by looking 
at any other rock. But if a geologist should find it, he 
would connect his past experience with that aroused by 
the rock and say it called to his mind an ice age, when 
tremendous ice fields covered all the northern part of 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 89 

Indiana. To one man it means much; to the other one, 
very little. Each brought his past experiences to bear 
upon the present, but one had little similar experience 
while the other had much. 

A child called a jardiniere of ferns '' a pot of green 
feathers. ' ' The child had had experience with pots, with 
green things, and with feathers which it brought to bear 
upon the experience aroused by the jardiniere of ferns 
with which it had not had experience. 

A small boy called a locomotive ''a big bow-wow." 
He had had experiences with ''bow-wows," dogs, which 
he brought to bear upon the experience aroused by the 
locomotive with which he had not had experience. 

The south sea islanders called Captain Cook's goats 
''horned hogs." They had had experiences with hogs 
and horns, which they brought to bear upon the exper- 
iences aroused by the goats with which they had not had 
experience. 

In each of the above cases the present experience 
was connected with the past in trying to get meaning. 
This the mind could do because of apperception. 

The Laws of Apperception. — There are two 
important laws of apperception as follows : 

1. When the mind sees that eleynents vii an experi- 
ence are similar to those of a previous experience, it gives 
the new experience the same meaning as the old. 

2. The mind in learning naturally goes to the 
unknown from the nearest related known. 

Illustrations. — The first law is illustrated by the fol- 
lowing: A little girl just learning to talk learned what 
a pumpkin was from playing with a large round one just 



90 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

inside the garden gate. Then she called the moon, a 
marble, the sun, a ball and everything spherical in 
shape a pumpkin for a long time. 

The second law is illustrated by the following: A 
little boy called the chicken 's wings its arms. Wings, the 
unknown, was gone to from arms, the nearest related 
known. 

Mastery of a Subject. — From the study of apper- 
ception, it is easily seen that the mastery of any subject 
consists of three things, as follows : 

1. The understanding of the subject. 

2. Fixing it in mind. 

3. Stating it in good language. 

The mind is able to understand any subject on 
account of the first thing the mind does because of apper- 
ception. It is able to fix in itself anything because of 
the second thing the mind does on account of apper- 
ception. Stating a thing in good language helps, also, 
to fix anything in mind. 

Self-activity. — In a sense probably everything in 
the universe possesses self-activity. Physicists tell us 
that the little particles of the stone, wood, soil and every- 
thing else are in a constant state of motion, or activity. 
This however is not just the sense in which the term is 
used in psychology. In the study here the term will be 
used in its psychological sense entirely. 

Nature of Self -activity. — Some idea of self-activity 
may be had by comparing objects which possess it with 
those which do not. A sewing machine acts in sewing, 
but always from a power without itself. A threshing 
machine acts, but the cause of its activity is not within 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 91 

itself. All machines act in a manner similar to the 
threshing machine and sewing machine; that is, from a 
cause not within themselves. A plant acts in growing by 
taking food from the soil and air and making it over 
into plant tissue; that is, by making it a part of itself. 
^^. horse acts from a cause within himself in taking food 
^nd changing it into horse flesh; and, also, by moving 
from place to place, he acts. The horse moves from place 
to place, takes his enviroment, breaks down its individ- 
uality and makes it a part of himself. The human body 
acts in moving from place to place, changing itself to fit 
its environment to suit its needs. 

The action of the plant, the horse, the human body, 
and also the mind are caused from within while the 
action of the machine is caused from without. The 
plant, the horse, the human body, and the human mind 
possess self-activity, but the machine does not. The 
mind is thus self-active, since it possesses the attribute 
by which it causes itself to act. 

Definition of Self -activity. — From the above study 
the following definition of self -activity is reached : 

Self-activity of the mind is that attribute hy virtue 
of which the mind causes itself to act. 

Law of Self -activity. — Without self-activity things 
never truly grow. Self-activitj^ is at the basis of all 
growth. Everything which grows grows by means of 
self-activity. The mind grows by self-activity. The 
mind grows most when it is most self-active providing 
the activity is not carried to the extremity of exhaustion. 
Any activity may be carried so far that it ceases to be 
healthy and may result in breakdown or paralysis, Thu^ 



92 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

the law of self-activity may be stated as follows : 

The Wiind groivs by its own self-activity and grows 
most when exercised to the maximum healthful activity. 

Nature of Iterativeness. — This is another attribute 
of the mind as fundamental as consciousness or atten- 
tion. In brief iterativeness means the tendency of the 
mind to repeat its phenomena. 

When the muscles of the arms and fingers perform 
the movements in making any character in writing for 
the first time or in playing the piano, the activity is done 
with difficulty and very unskillfully. Repeated attempts 
give more skill and success. Each act makes the per- 
formance a little easier to accomplish. Each act affected 
the muscles and the mind, and this effect remained with 
them in the form of a tendency. That is to say when an 
attempt was repeated the mind and muscles tended to act 
so as to make the action a little easier rather than to act 
in some other way. Thus each act of mind or muscle 
leaves a tendency. 

But what is a tendency ? AVe say the growing point 
of the stem of a plant has a tendency to grow upward, 
and the growing point of the root has a tendency to 
grow downward. We fold a paper, and then say it has 
a tendency to fold in the same place again. We say a 
duck has a tendency to play in the water. What all 
these things are in the last analysis w^hich we are 
accustomed to call tendencies is a mystery. We can not 
define a tendency, but we can characterize it as follows : 

A tendency is a disposition to perform some activity. 

Definition of Iterativeness. — The mind possesses the 
characteristic by which it has a tendency to repeat its 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 93 

activities. The following is the formal definition of 
iterativeness : 

Iterative ness of the mind is that attribute hy virtue 
of tvlticli tlie rnind tends to act again as it has acted. 

Function of Iterativeness. — It is difficult to esti- 
mate the vahie of iterativeness in one's mental life. Its 
value is so great that it can not be overestimated per- 
haps. The following are some of its functions : 

1. It enables the mind and body to form habits. 

2. It enables one to attain skill in activity. 

3. It enables one to acquire arts, as walking, run- 
ning, skating, talking, writing, and so on. 

4. It enables one to remember. Without iterative- 
ness there could be no memory. 

The Nature of Rhythm. — ¥7hen the word, rhythm, 
is mentioned, most persons probably think of poetry and 
music. Poetry and music possess rhythm, it is true, but 
rhythm is not restricted to them. It belongs to almost 
everything in the w^orld. Everything from a dewdrop to 
an ocean, from a snowflake to a glacier, from a pebble to 
a continent, possesses rhythm. Every leaf, every flower, 
and every blade of grass possesses rhythm. 

An examination of things possessing rhythm always 
shows that there is some characteristic, a departure from 
it and a return to it, and that things not possessing 
rhythm fail in this characteristic. Thus in a broad sense 
rhythm is as follows: Rhythm is the thing itself, the 
departure from that thing and the return to it. It does 
not matter what the thing is, just so there is the 
departure from it and the return to it. The following is 
rhythmical : 



94 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

"The day is cold and dark and dreary; 
It rains and the wind is never weary." 

In this there is the sound symbolized by eary in the 
word, "dreary." This is the thing, and "It rains, and 

the wind is never w " is the departure from it. The 

return is the sound of eary in the word "weary." 

In the maple leaf rhythm is manifested by a portion 
on the right half always having a corresponding like 
portion on the left half, the parts between the like parts 
being different. One of the like parts is the thing, that 
between them is the departure from it, and the other like 
part is the return to it. The human mind possesses this 
tendency to act, to depart from the action, and to return 
to it. This is the mind's attribute of rhythm. 

Since the mind is rhythmical it likes rhythm in any- 
thing and dislikes that which is not rhythmical. The 
world is full of rhythm and the human mind longs for it. 

Definition of Rhythm. — From the above study the 
following formal definition of rhythm as an attribute of 
mind is reached : 

Rhythm of the mind is that attribute hy virtue of 
ivhich the mind acts and activity departs from it and 
tends to return to it at regularly recurring periods. 

Function of Rhythm. — Without rhythm the activ- 
ities, of the mind as well as all other of life 's activities 
would lack order, system, regularity and harmony. 
Thus the following is the function of rhythm : 

1. By rhythm the mind introduces order, regular- 
ity, system, and harmony into life's manifold and com- 
plex activities. 



CHAPTER IX. 

MENTAL ACTIVITIES. 

Nature of Mental Activity. — By observation of 
one 's own mind he can see that at one time he is thinking 
of probably arithmetic, and at another time of gram- 
mar; at one time he is sad, and at another time happy; 
at one time angry, and at another time in good humor ; 
at one time striving to direct his activities, at another 
time resting. That is to say, one sees his mind different 
at different times. And for this reason he knows that 
his mind changes, that he sees it in different conditions 
at different times. 

Now mental activity is the presupposition of the 
mind's being in different conditions at different times. 

Classes of Mental Activities. — By looking into our 
minds to study their activities we are able to see that at 
some times our minds are almost wholly occupied in 
thinking ; again they are depressed with sorrow or elated 
with joy ; and at other times the mind seems to be doing 
nothing much but striving to direct its activities and the 
activities of the body. These distinctions among the 
mind's activities give basis for dividing them into three 
groups : 

1. Knowing. 

2. Feeling. 

3. Willing. 



96 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

Order of These Activities. — The order of these 
activities may be seen from almost any common illustra- 
tion. For instance we read of the storm which devas- 
tated Galveston a few years ago, and understood that 
the people were left in desolation — knowing; we sympa- 
thized with them and were sorry for them — feeling; we 
directed our activities to send them money, food, and 
clothing — willing. Thus in any complete act of the 
mind the order of development is knowing , feeling ^ and 
willing. 

Nature of Knowing. — In general all knowing is the 
mind's process of getting meaning. But that this state- 
ment may not be misleading the term, meaning, must be 
thoroughly understood. Most persons, at first thought, 
would probably say that meaning is something which 
objects in the external world have. That is to say, 
meaning seems to be in the books, in trees, in rivers, in 
flowers, and so on. But strictly speaking this is an 
error. Careful thinking shows that things very unlike 
what the mind has ever experienced seem to have very 
little meaning for it. And this truth carried on out 
shows that, if it were possible to find anything entirely 
different from anything the mind has ever experienced, 
the mind would get absolutely no meaning from it. 
Again, two persons look at the word, ohliviscor, and 
while one gets no meaning from it, to the other it means, 
I forget. So no two persons get precisely the same 
meaning from an object or event which they see. An 
object or event stimulates to an activity of the mind, and, 
if the mind has had past mental activities of a similar 
character to connect the present activity with, it is said 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 97 

the mind gets meaning. Thus meaning is a thing which 
is in the mind. That is to say, meaning is relation; and 
further, it is the relation between present mental exper- 
iences and past mental experiences. But to trace this 
thought out further is to study experience and relation. 

Experience will be found by accurate thought to 
mean any change, or activity, and any mental exper- 
ience is any mental change, or activity. 

Relation is the connection between the mind's 
experiences. It is the likeness and difference between 
the mind's experiences. 

Definition of Knowing .-—From the above study the 
following definitions of knowing are got : 

Knoiving is the mind's process of getting meaning. 
Meaning is the relation between the mind's experiences. 
Experiences are changes, or activities. Relation is the 
likeness and difference between the mind's experiences. 

Knowing is the mind's process of grasping the rela- 
tion between its present and past experiences. 

Discriminating and Unifying. — Discriminating is 
seeing differences and unifying is seeing likenesses. The 
mind in knowing sees differences and likenesses between 
its experiences and thus discriminates and unifies. Thus 
knowing is both discriminating and unifying. The 
mind always discriminates first in knowing and unifies 
secondly. One thing necessary in knowing a maple tree 
is to see the dift'erence between the mental activity it 
arouses and the mental activity aroused by the oak tree ; 
and a second thing necessary is to see the likeness 
between the activity aroused by the maple tree and the 
activity aroused by maple trees in the past. 



98 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

The mind is not always reflectively conscious that it 
is seeing the likeness and difference between its exper- 
iences, but it sees them just the same. 

Thus we arrive at a third definition of knowing: 
Knoivmg is the mind's process of, first, seeing the differ- 
ences, and, secondly, the likenesses between its exper- 
iences. 

All Knowing Indirect. — There is no way for the 
mind to get meaning directly from an object. The past 
experience must always come in as a means in knowing. 
This truth leads to the statement that all knowing is 
indirect. That is to say, in knowing the experience 
aroused by any object is always referred to the past 
experience, and this act of reference to the past exper- 
ience makes the knowing indirect. 

Function of Knowing. — The question here is. Why 
does the mind want to know? What good is there in 
knowing? Careful reflection on this point leads us to 
believe that the mind needs to know that it may direct 
itself and the body to act as they should. There would 
be no need for knowing if there was no acting to be done. 
If one always knew the best thing to do next he would 
have no further need for knowledge. He would be as 
wise as he needs be. Thus knowledge ultimately has its 
end in activity. 

Wisdom and Virtue. — Wisdom thus consists in 
knowing what is best to do next. If one possesses knowl- 
edge which never in any way guides in knowing what is 
best to do next, it is not a part of one's wisdom. It 
violates the origin and function of knowledge. It is 
useless. Thus the difference between wisdom and 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 99 

knowledge appear. One is wise only to the extent to 
which he knows what is best to do next. 

Thus wisdom consists in knowing what is best to do 
next under any set of circumstances, and virtue consists 
in doing it. 

Nature of Feeling. — In general feeling is the agree- 
able or disagreeable aspect of our experiences. Every 
experience the mind has changes it both temporarily 
and permanently. The mind never is after an exper 
ience quite what it was before the experience. Some of 
these experiences change the mind for the better and 
some change it for the worse, but all change it perma- 
nently in some way. This change of the self by an exper- 
ience is called the value of experience. The value of an 
experience may be stated as follows : 

The value of an experience is the effect of the exper- 
ience on the self. 

Experiences have two values to the self: 

1. Positive. 

2. Negative. 

If the experience is in harmony with the growth 
toward well-being, the experience has a positive value; 
that is, if it furthers development toward well-being, it 
has a positive value to the self. If the experience is not 
in harmony with growth toward well-being, it has a nega- 
tive value. That is to say, if the experience hinders the 
c.eveiopment toward well-being it has a negative value 
to the self. 

Now the mind has the ability of becoming aware, to 
a greater or less extent, of the value of experiences to 
itself. That is to say, the mind is aware or thinks it is 

LOFC. 



100 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

aware, at least, when it has an experience, whether the 
experience furthers or hinders its growth in well-being. 
It is no doubt true that experiences are unfavorable to 
the growth in well-being, even when the mind regards 
them as favorable. And it holds equally true that an 
experience may be favorable to growth in well-being, yet 
the mind regard it as unfavorable. 

When the self has an experience, and becomes 
aware, or supposes it is aware, of the value of this 
experience to the self, the condition, or state, of mind 
which results is feeling. 

Genesis of Feeling. — By genesis of feeling is meant 
the series of mental changes v/hich result in feeling in 
specific instances. Thus one is not in sorrow, but later 
finds himself sad. Now, the question is, What series of 
changes of the self led to the feeling of sadness? This 
series is the genesis of feeling. 

A careful study of the genesis of feeling reveals the 
following steps in it : 

1. ^JuQ experience. 

2. Value of experience. 

3. Awareness of value of experience. 

4. Resultant state of mind — feeling. 
Illustration. — A fire is pleasant on a cold day. The 

pleasure is a feeling. The fire stimulates one to an 
experience. This experience furthers one's well-being — 
the value of the experience. The mind either consciously 
or unconsciously recognizes this value — the awareness of 
the value of the experience. The resultant pleasure — 
the state of niind, the feeling. 

Definition of Feeling. — The following definition for 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 101 

feeling grows out of the genesis of feeling: 

Feeling is the state of mind tvhich results from the 

mind's becoming aware of the value of an experience to 

the self. 

An analysis of this definition reveals the following 

points in it : 

1. A state of mind. 

2. An experience. 

3. The value of an experience. 

4. Becoming aware. 

5. The self. 

By state of mind is meant the disturbed or agitated 
condition of consciousness. It is a deeper thing than 
what is usually called a mental activity. In the activity 
of a muscle, the whole muscle acts together, but the 
individual molecules in the muscle act, too. The 
activities of the mina are comparable to the activities of 
the muscle as a whole, while the state of mind is compar- 
able to the molecular action. It is an activity, but an 
unobtrusive, subtle activity oi the self. 

Feeling is always a state, or condition, of the mind, 
and is alivays an accompaniment of activity or exper- 
ience. 

An experience, as before seen, is any change, or 
activity, whatever. It is what the feeling accompanies, 
and what feeling indirectly results from. 

The value of an experience is the effect of the exper- 
ience on the life of the person. This effect is in part 
temporary and in part permanent. One thing about it 
is certain, one's experiences organize his life, build his 
character, for a higher or lower destiny. 



102 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

Becoming aware is the recognition by the mind 
either consciously or unconsciously of the value of an 
experience to the self. The thing become aware of is 
thus the value of the experience. It is not meant that 
the mind always reflectively and consciously thinks out 
the value of the experience to the self, but that uncon- 
sciously, or implicitly, responds so as to indicate that 
this is what it has done. 

The self in the widest sense is both the body and the 
mind. Thus there is a physical self and a mental self. 
The physical self is the self -active, self-adjusting organ- 
ism called the body. The mental self is the original 
power of the mind to knoiv, feel, and ivill plus the effect 
of its experiences on it. 

Forms of Feeling, ^A\\ feeling is divided into the 
following large forms, not classes: 

1. Love, or like. 

2. Hate, or dislike. 

3. Indifference. 

Love, or Like. — When the mind has an experience 
which it regards as having a positive value to the self 
the feeling which arises is love, or like. The formal defi- 
nition is as follows: Love is the feeling which arises 
when the mind has an experience ivhich it regards as 
having a positive value to the self. 

It has sometimes been taught that we can love only 
persons, and that we like all other things. Such teach- 
ing is purely arbitrary and unAvarranted. It is entirely 
correct to say we love flowers, poetry, paintings, music, 
truth, beauty, and goodness. One finds the term, love, 
so used in good English. 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 103 

''Any object whatever may become an object of love 
or hatred, though it is usual to restrict these terms to 
higher objects. ' ' — Dewey. 

Hate, or Dislike. — If the mind has an experience 
which it regards as having a negative value to the self, 
the feeling Avhich arises is hate, or dislike. The formal 
definition is as follows : Hate is the feeling which arises 
when the mind has an experience which it regards as 
having a negative value to the self. 

Indifference. — There is perhaps no such thing as 
entire indiiference with respect to anything, but there 
are various degrees of it. The term, indifference, names 
a mental state and it should be studied and described 
in psychology. 

If the mind regards the experience as having little 
or no value to the self, the state of mind which arises is 
indifference. The following is the formal definition: 
Indifference is that state of mind which arises when the 
mind has an experience which it regards as having 
little or no value to the self. 

The Function of Feeling. — It is difficult to appre- 
ciate the value of feeling in the life of the individual. 
Its functions can not well be overestimated. The three 
following points indicate these to some extent : 

1. It makes life worth living. 

2. It is a guide in human action. 

3. It is the mainspring to all human activity. 
Without feeling life would not be worth living. It 

is impossible to conceive what one would want to live 
for, if all feeling were taken out of life. No joy, no 
hope, no love, no happiness, nor pleasure would bless 



104 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

one's life, if there were no feeling. Feeling is thus the 
wine of life. 

Feeling is a sort of safeguard which nature has 
thrown around us. Feeling always accompanies activ- 
ity. If the activity furthers the growth toward well- 
being, a pleasant feeling accompanies it to urge us to 
repeat the activity for the development it furnishes. If 
the activity hinders growth toward w^ell-being, a dis- 
agreeable feeling accompanies it to urge us to avoid the 
activity because of the hindrance to development. Thus 
feeling is a guide in action. However it may seem one 
is always ultimately guided by his feeling. 

Feeling urges to activity; that is, it is a spring to 
action. Everything which one intentionally does, he 
does because of feeling; because he loves somebody or 
something. Thus love of truth has produced science 
and philosophy; love of beauty, architecture, sculpture, 
painting, music and poetry; also, many other beautiful 
things; love of society, the family, the church, the 
school and the state; love of goodness, ethics. 

Nature of Willing. — A short accurate statement for 
willing is willing is the mind's process of controlling its 
impulses. 

Willing is a complex process involving both know- 
ing and feeling, being characterized by striving to act 
in some way. The process of Avilling always begins with 
an impulse. Impulse is an excess of energy, or a sur- 
plus of force. Impulse produces some sort of activity. 

The impulses which urge the little child to throw 
his arms and legs about in any direction before he is 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 105 

old enough to control himself are good examples of 
impulses. 

By a rather complex process in Avilling impulse is 
changed into desire. . Desire is a feeling directed toward 
something tuliich it is tJiought ivill satisfy that feeling. 

Desire in the process of willing is changed into 
choice. Then lastly the mind directs the activities of the 
self toward the realization of the choice; that is, toward 
carrying out the choice. 

Definition of Willing. — The following are both 
accurate definitions of willing : 

1. Willing is the mind's process of controlling its 
impulses. 

2. Willing is the process in tvhich the mind 
changes impidses into desire, desire into choice, and in 
which the mind tries to realize the choice. 

An analysis of this definition shows the following 
points in it : 

1. Impulse. 

2. Desire. 

3. Choice. 

4. The process by which impulse becomes desire. 

5. The process by which desire becomes choice. 

6. The process by which the mind seeks to realize 
the choice. 

Impulse as seen before is a surplus of force. It 
furnishes the poAver to make the whole process of willing 
go. 

Desire is a feeling for anything which the mind 
thinks will satisfy the feeling. Thus one's desire for a 
drink is his feeling for the drink with the additional 



106 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

point that the mind thinks the drink will satisfy the 
feeling. And so it is with every desire. 

A careful analysis of the process by which impulse 
becomes desire shows the following points involved in it : 

1. The mina is conscious of its real condition. 

2. The mind sees an ideal condition of itself. 

3. The mind compares these two. 

4. The mind decides which is better. 

5. A feeling of dissatisfaction arises. 

6. A desire arises. 

Illustration. — A student knows of a lecture, which 
arouses an impulse in him. He is at home — ^his real con- 
dition; he thinks of his being at the lecture — ^the ideal 
condition; he compares these two; he decides that to be 
at the lecture is better than to be at home ; he is dissatis- 
fied to be at home, and so desires to have himself at the 
lecture. 

In the process of changing the desire into choice 
there may be involved a conflict of desires; that is, the 
mind may desire two things or more, the possession of 
one of which precludes the possession of the other or 
others. In the illustration given the student probably 
desired to stay at home and study his lesson, but he also 
desired to be at the lecture. Since he could not both go 
to the lecture and stay at home^^ there was a conflict of 
the two desires. 

The selecting the desire to go to the lecture and 
dropping the other out of mind was the choice. Thus 
choice is selecting a desire and dropping out of mind any 
other desire in conflict with it. The thing chosen is thus 
a desire. 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 107 

An analysis reveals the following in the process by 
which desire becomes choice: 

1. Two or more desires before the mind. 

2. The mind compares these. 

3. The mind decides which is better. 

4. The selecting of the better one — the choice. 

The process in which the mind tries to realize the 
choice, consists in the mind's directing the mental and 
physical activities to perform the deed. The directing 
is purely mental, bnt the activities directed may be either 
mental or physical. In the above illustration, the mind's 
directing the physical activities of going to the lecture 
was the process in which the mind was trying to realize 
the choice. 

The process of realizing the choice may be short 
or may continue through years. It may be extremely 
difficult and complex, and never is entirely simple. 

The Functions of Willing.— Repesited acts of 
the will give self-control and character. Thus the func- 
tions of the will are in general two: 

1. Self-control. 

2. Character. 

Self-control is of three kinds : physical, prudential, 
and moral. Character is of two kinds: good and had. 

Intellect, Feeling, and Will. — ^We must distinguish 
between a power of mind and the resulting activity. 
Thus one may have the power to run and not be running 
at all. Thus there is a distinction between the power 
to run and the activity of running. 

Intellect is a power of mind, the power to know. 
Knowing is an activity and the intellect is the power 



108 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

which is back of the activity of knowing. The following 
is a formal definition for intellect: 

Intellect is the poiver hy wliicJi the mind grasps the 
relation between its present and past experiences. 

In a similar way feeling and mil may be defined as 
powers, as follows: 

Feeling is the power of having agreeable and dis- 
agreeable aspects to our experiences. 

The will is the mind's power of controlling its 
impulses. 

Opposition between Knowing, Feeling and Willing. 
— Knowing, feeling and willing oppose each other to some 
extent. Thus one can not know and feel and will to the 
maximum at the same time. If most of the mental 
energy is employed in knowing, feeling and willing are 
weakened. Or if one is feeling to the maximum, it 
opposes knowing and willing. The expression, one is so 
angry he has no sense, means feeling opposes the best 
work of the intellect. 

All in All. — In every complete mental activity 
knowing, feeling and willing are all involved. There is 
no complete activity of the mind which is just knowing 
or just feeling or just willing. All are involved in every 
complete activity. Thus all is in all in psychology. 

If the predominating element in an activity is 
knowing, the act is called one of knowing ; if it is feeling, 
the act is called one of feeling ; if it is willing, the act is 
called one of willing. Thus mental activities are named 
on the basis of their predominating element. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE SENSATION. 

Nature of the Sensation. — The sensation is the first, 
most primitive, and least developed conscious mental 
activity which the mind ever has. It is the first con- 
scious step in the mental changes succeeding the physical 
changes in one's life. It is the first conscious step across 
from tlie purely physical to the mental. It is the first 
consciousness resulting from external stimulus. 

If one places his hand on a chestnut burr, it acts as 
a stimulus, which excites the peripheral nerve ending. 
This disturbance of the peripheral nerve ending extends 
along the nerve fiber to the brain and there arouses a 
disturbance. This disturbance of the brain is followed 
by a disturbance in the mind from which there results a 
state of consciousness. It is this resultant state of con- 
sciousness which is the sensation. 

Thus the succession of steps leading up to and 
including the sensation are : 

1. Stimulus. 

2. Excitation of peripheral nerve ending. 

3. Transmission of impulse. 

4. Disturbance in the brain. 

5. Corresponding mental disturbance. 

6. The resultant state of consciousness, that is, 
the sensation itself. 



110 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

Stimulus, as before seen, is always some kind of 
motion which comes in contact with some part of the 
nervous system. Thus the stimulus of hearing is motion 
in the air ; the stimulus of sight is motion of the ether ; 
the stimulus of touch is motion in the molecules of 
matter; the stimulus of the muscular sense is motion in 
the muscles. 

Impulse is an excess of energy, or a surplus of 
force. Thus in the transmission of the impulse one 
particle of nervous matter has an excess of energy and 
strikes against another particle and transfers some of 
its energy to it; and it in turn strikes the next, trans- 
ferring some of its energy to it, and so on till the impulse 
reaches the brain. Then the disturbance spreads and 
produces a small or large disturbance in the brain, 
depending upon the force of the stimulus and the ten- 
sion in the brain. 

Just how a disturbance of the mind results from the 
disturbance in the brain is not known. If this were 
known the exact connection between the mind and the 
body could probably be worked out. In our present 
state of knowledge this connection is a mystery. But we 
know positively that there does result a mental distur- 
bance. 

It is this mental disturbance which arouses con- 
sciousness; that is, arouses the sensation. And since 
one can no more be conscious without being conscious of 
something than he can eat without eating something, the 
sensation is the consciousness of the mental disturbance. 

Definition of Sensation. — The sensation may be 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. Ill 

defined as follows: The sensation is the first state of 
consciousness resulting from external stimulus. 

The popular notion of sensation is usually vague. 
It is not uncommon to hear the term, sensation, used for 
stimulus and impulse. Sensation is often thought of as 
a physical thing, and is spoken of as being transmitted. 
No sensation is a physical thing and no sensation is ever 
transmitted. Four steps leading to the sensation are 
physical, but the sensation itself is a state of conscious- 
ness, and consciousness is purely a mental thing. 

Classes of Sensations. — There are two classes of sen- 
sation : 

1. General, or organic. 

2. Special. 

General, or organic, sensations are those which 
give us a knowledge of the ill-being or well-being of our 
bodies, and have no special sense organs. Any organ of 
the body which has nerves is an organ of general sensa- 
tion. Pain, fatigue, hunger, and thirst are general sen- 
sations. 

Special sensations are those which give us a knowl- 
edge mainly of objects around us, and have special 
sense organs. Light, sound, odor, smdflavor are special 
sensations. 

Characteristics of Sensations. — Sensations have 
three characteristics. They are as follows: 

1. Quality. 

2. Intensity. 

3. Duration. 

Quality. — The quality of sensations is the main dif- 
ference between sensations. It is it more than anything 



112 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

else which enables the mind to tell the differences 
among material objects. No two objects stimulate the 
mind to quite the same sensations in quality. The mind 
knows hot from cold, rough from smooth, sweet from 
sour, white from black, one man from another, and so 
on because of a difference in the quality of the sensa- 
tions. 

Causes of Difference in Quality. — There are several 
causes of the difference in the quality of sensations, 
some of which are the following : 

1. Difference in the quality of the stimulus. This 
is the the main cause of the difference in the quality 
of sensations. The song of the robin gives different 
sensations from the song of a hen, the lowing of cows, 
different from neighing of horses. The rose gives differ- 
ent sight sensations from those given by the lily. A 
feather gives different touch sensations from those given 
by a stone. A carnation gives different sensations of 
smell from those given by the hyacinth. An apple 
gives different taste sensations from those given by a 
strawberry. These differences in the quality of sensa- 
tions are all due to differences in the quality of the 
stimuli. 

2. Diff^erence in the sense organ stimulated. If 
the same stimulus, as an electrical current, be applied 
to the eye and the ear, sensations different in quality 
result. 

3. The time for which the stimulus acts may 
change the quality of the sensation. After one looks 
at red for a long time it may appear green. 

4. The intensity of sensation changes its quality. 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 113 

A moderate degree of warmth is pleasant. But by 
increasing the stimulus the sensation becomes painful. 
A light gives a pleasant sensation. But increase its 
intensity and a place is reached where it becomes pain- 
ful. 

Intensity. — The intensity of the sensation means 
the force with which a sensation affects one. It is very 
well illustrated by the difference in the sensations 
aroused by a light of ten candle power and one of sev- 
enty-five candle power, or by the difference in the sen- 
sation aroused by a kerosene lamp and by that of an 
electric light. 

Causes of Difference of Intensity. — The following 
are causes of the difference in the intensity of the sen- 
sation : 

1. The intensity of the stimulus. The cause of 
the difference in the intensity of the sensation aroused 
by a candle and by the sun is that the stimulus from 
the sun is more intense than the stimulus from the can- 
dle. Also, the cause of the difference in the intensity 
of the sensation from the report of a rifle and from a 
peal of thunder is in the intensity of the stimulus. 

2. The attention the mind gives it. If the atten- 
tion is centered on the pain from a slight wound, it 
becomes more intense. If no attention is given to 
wounds they often are not at all painful. 

3. The condition of mind and body. A noise that 
gives but a slight sensation when one is feeling well 
gives a much more intense sensation when one is not 
feeling well. "If we have a headache, a noise that we 
should not ordinarily notice may seem unbearable. ' ' 



114 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

4. Contrast in stimulus, * ' Let A be a bowl of cold 
water; B, a bowl of hot water; C, a bowl of lukewarm 
water. Plunge the right hand into A, the left into B ; 
then withdraw both and plunge them into C. The luke- 
warm water will seem warm to the right hand, cold to 
the left." Thus contrast affects the intensity of the 
sensation. 

Limits of Sensation. — Our sensations do not 
acquaint us with all the phenomena of the world in 
which we live. In fact they acquaint us with only a 
small part of it. Thus the ear can not acquaint most 
persons with vibrations in the air below thirty per 
second and above 36,000 per second. There are vibra- 
tions in the air below thirty and above 36,000 per 
second, but we have no sensations to give us a knowledge 
of them. 

We have no sense which gives us sensations of the 
vibrations of ether before they reach 18,000,000 per 
second, when we get sensations of heat. Then there is 
a jump to the sensation of light at about 462,000,000,- 
000,000 per second, which gives red. They increase as 
we pass from one color to another until about 733,000,- 
000,000,000 per second is reached, which gives violet. 
Beyond this the eye does not give us sensations, so all is 
darkness. 

Thus our sensations are limited to a very small 
amount of the phenomena in the world about us. There 
is no knowing how the world would appear if we had a 
dozen more senses. 

The Threshold of Sensation. — "There is always 
inertia to be overcome in rousing nervous matter. A 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 115 

certain amount of stimulus is expended in this. If no 
more is added, there is no sensation. When the inertia 
is once overcome, the sensation will persist for a time 
after the cessation of the stimulus. Atmospheric vibra- 
tions at the rate of ten per second do not sufficiently 
stimulate the brain to render us conscious of sound. 
When they reach a minimum of from sixteen to thirty, 
they enter the threshold of human consciousness; and 
^t a maximum of 36,000, they pass out by the upper 
threshold. The cat can hear sounds inaudible to man, 
and hence has a lower aural threshold." Thus sensa- 
tions have two thresholds : 

1. Upper. 

2. Lower. 

Intensity of Sensation not Proportional to Intensity 
of Stimulus. — The increase in the intensity of the sensa- 
tion is not proportional to the increase in the intensity 
of the stimulus. 

"Within certain limits, any sensory stimulus may 
be augmented without increasing the sensation. We 
should not perceive increased intensity in a sound when 
augmented one-fourth. An ounce might be added to 
two pounds without detection by the pressure sense. 
The additional stimulus necessary to increase the inten- 
sity of a sensation varies for different senses. Sound 
must be increased one-third; light, only one one-hun- 
dredth." 

Thus doubling the stimulus in intensity does not 
double the sensation in intensity. 

Duration. — The duration of the sensation has refer- 
ence to the time which it lasts. Thus the difference 



116 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

between a whole note and a half note of the same pitch, 
intensity, and quality, is in their duration. Again, 
some tastes endure for a long time while others disap- 
pear quickly; that is, the duration of some is greater 
than of others. 

The Local Sign of Tactile Sensations. — There is 
something about touch, or tactile, sensations which en- 
ables the mind to know the point of application of the 
stimulus. Thus when the foot is touched the mind does 
not make the mistake of thinking it is the face which is 
touched. This characteristic of the sensation is the 
local sign. The formal statement for it is as follows: 
The local sign of tactile sensations is that characteristic 
of them which enables the mind to tell the point of appli- 
cation of the stimulus. 

Aspects of the Sensation. — If one should put his 
hand upon a hot stove, the sensation got would (1) 
enable him to knoAV something; (2) give pain; and (3) 
stimulate him to act. Thus there are three aspects to the 
sensation as follows : 

1. Intellectual. 

2. Emotional. 

3. Volitional. 

The intellectual aspect of the sensation is that one 
which enables the mind to get knowledge from the sensa- 
tion. It furnishes the basis for the development of 
knoivi^ig. 

The emotional aspect of the sensation is that aspect 
which is pleasurable or painful. It furnishes the basis 
for the development of feeling. 

The volitional aspect of the sensation is that aspect 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 117 

which urges to action. It furnishes the basis for the 
development of willing. 

Comparison of General and Special Sensations. — 
The following points in the comparison of general and 
special sensations are worthy of study. 

1. General sensations enable the mind to know 
the ill-being or well-being of the body; the special, 
mainly the outside world. 

2. General sensations have no special sense organs ; 
the special have. 

3. The knowledge got through general sensations 
is vague, while that obtained through special sensations 
is much more definite. 

4. The emotional aspect predominates in the gen- 
eral sensations ; the intellectual, in the special. 

5. General sensations have no special brain areas; 
special have. 

Pain, hunger, fatigue and thirst as examples of 
general sensations give one only a knowledge of the ill- 
being or Avell-being of the body. This is the function of 
the general sensations. Color, odor, sound, flavor and 
so on, special sensations, give one a knowledge mainly 
of objects in the outside world, though not ivholly. The 
mind can also get a knowledge of the body through 
special sensations. 

Any part of the body containing nerves is an organ 
of general sensation; not so, in regard to the special 
sensations. Their organs are the eyes, the ears, the 
nose, and so on — special organs. 

Pain, fatigue, and so on, general sensations, do not 
give definite knowledge. The knowledge got through 



118 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

them is general and vague. Sound, flavor, odor, and 
color, special sensations, give definite knowledge. 

General sensations are mainly painful or pleasur- 
able. This is the most important thing about them. But 
the most important thing about the special sensations is 
their value to the intellect. They enable the mind to 
get knowledge. 

General sensations are not aroused by impulses 
being carried to special brain areas. Any part of the 
cortex of the brain seems to be connected with general 
sensations. Sight sensations, auditory sensations and 
so on have special brain areas. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE SENSES. 

The Nature of a Sense. — A sense is wholly a mental 
thing. It is not made up of nerve endings, tissues, blood 
vessels nor cells. It is not a physical thing at all. It is 
entirely mental. It is a sense which enables the mind 
to get sensations. The following is the formal statement 
for it: A sense is the mind's power to get sensations. 
Thus the sense of sight is the mind's power to get sensa- 
tions of color; the sense of hearing is the mind's power 
to get sensations of sound; smell, the mind's power to 
get sensations of odor. 

''A sense is not an organ or group of nerve-ends, 
but a power of the mind. A sense is the mind's power 
to receive impressions of the outer world by means of 
a particular set of nerves, or part of the nervous system. 
For example, the sense of smell is the mind's poAver to be 
impressed through the agency of the olfactory nerves 
and their special connections in the brain." 

Classes of Senses. — There are in general two classes 
of senses : 

1. General, or organic. 

2. Special. 

Pain, hunger, thirst and fatigue are sensations got 
through the general sense. It will be seen that their 
function is chiefly to inform one of the ill-being or well- 



120 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

being of the body ; also, that they have no special organs. 
Any part of the body having nerves is an organ of the 
general sense. Thus the hands, the eye, the stomach, the 
heart and the liver are organs of the general sense. The 
definition of the general sense is as follows : 

The general sense is that sense ivhich gives one a 
knowledge of the ill-heing or ivell-heing of the body and 
has no special organs. 

Color, sound, odor, and flavor are sensations got 
through the special senses. Their functions, it is seen, 
are mainly to give us knowledge of objects in the outside 
world. They have special organs. Thus the eye is the 
organ of color sensations; the ear, of sound sensations; 
the nose, of odor sensations; and the mouth, of flavor 
sensations. The definition of a special sense is as fol- 
lows : 

A special sense is that kind of sense ivhich gives us 
mainly a kfiowledge of objects around us, and ivhich has 
special organs. 

The Special Senses. — The special senses are seven 
in numebr, though not long ago it was thought that there 
were only five. If they be named accordingly as they 
give most knowledge during one's whole life under 
normal conditions, they are as follows : 



1. 


Sight. 


2. 


Hearing. 


3. 


Touch. 


4. 


Smell. 


5. 


Taste. 


6. 


Muscular. 


7. 


Temperature. 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 121 

The Temperature Sense. — '^Next to the organic 
sense in its generality, is the Thermal, or Temperature 
Sense, yielding the sensations of heat and cold. This 
sense was formerly not distinguished from that of touch, 
for the reason that its nerve ends are distributed through 
the skin. But experimentation finally established the 
fact that these sensations arise from the excitation of 
separate nerve ends devoted to tins purpose. Some of 
these are susceptible only to contacts of relatively high 
temperature, and are known as heat spots; others only 
to contacts of low temperature, and are known as Gold 
spots. These are closely interspersed throughout the 
skin, but may be located by the use of a metal pencil or 
needle. If this when heated be touched to a 'cold spot,' 
only the sensation of contact will be felt ; the same will 
be true if a cold point touches a 'heat spot.' It should 
be remembered that 'heat and cold are only skin deep.' 
The temperature of the blood, and consequently of the 
flesh, does not vary greatly with the changes of atmos- 
pheric temperature. The temperature of the blood is 
confined within the range from 95° to 106° Fahrenheit, 
the normal temperature being from 97° to 98.5°. 
Sidney Smith, on a hot day, wished to 'take off his flesh 
and sit in his bones. ' It w^ould have answered as weU to 
take off his skin only. ' ' 

There are the tw^o following reasons why the 
temperature sense is to be considered a separate sense 
from the touch : 

1. They have separate nerve fibers and nerve end- 
ings. 

2. Their delicacy does not vary in the same way 



122 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

over different parts of the body. The tip of the tongue, 
the ends of the fingers and the lips are most sensitive to 
touch, while the cheek, not very sensitive to touch, is the 
most sensitive to temperature. 

The Muscular Sense. — The muscular sense and 
touch are so closely connected that formerly they were 
not discriminated. And there are some psychologists 
now who do not regard it a separate sense. But it is 
better regarded a separate sense. 

There are afferent nerve fibers which have their peri- 
pheral ending in the muscles. When the muscles act or 
are at rest these fibers carry impulses into the brain and 
there result muscular sensations. The mental power to 
get sensations of motion and resistance from sensory 
nerve fibers having their peripheral ends in the muscles 
is the muscular sense. 

The chief sensations got through this sense are the 
sensations of movement and resistance. Both measure 
muscular energy which is being put forth. Without the 
aid of other senses the mind learns muscular movement, 
its distance and direction; also, the amount of energy 
put forth in overcoming resistance in any form what- 
ever, weight, hardness, or rigidity. 

Ideas Got from Muscular Sense, — Through the var- 
ious muscular sensations the mind gets ideas of motion, 
extension, distance, direction, weight, hardness, softness, 
rigidity and pliability. 

The muscular sense is thus seen to be a very import- 
ant sense. It gives us the original ideas which furnish 
the basis for geometry and physics. Without the mus- 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 123 

cular sense our progress in getting acquainted with the 
external world would be very slow if not impossible. 

The Sense of Taste. — Taste is that special sense 
whose end organs are the taste huds in the tongue. 
This is a statement for taste in a strict sense. What is 
usually called taste is really a combination of three 
senses: taste proper, smell, and touch. It is a common 
observation that when anything affects the sense of 
smell, a bad cold, for instance, our food tastes different. 
And much of the pleasure which comes from eating 
jellies, ices, etc., is derived from touch and the tempera- 
ture sense. 

There are on the tongue papillae which give the 
roughness to the tongue, and in these papillae are taste 
buds. Soluble substances reduced to liquid form soak 
into these taste buds and stimulate them. From these 
stimuli there result the sensations of taste. 

The distinct tastes are four in number : sweet, sour, 
salt, and hitter. There are many combinations of these 
four. Such so-called tastes as puckery, pungent, and 
hot are not regarded by psychologists as tastes, properly 
speaking. They are called mechanical effects. ''All 
these 'mechanical effects' belong really to the class of 
organic sensations. ' ' 

Functions of Taste. — The functions of taste are in 
general three : 

1. It has been called the ' ' sentinel of the stomach. ' ' 

2. It gives points of knowledge about substances in 
the external world. 

3. It gives us a great deal of pleasure. 

The Sense of Smell. — The sense of smell is that 



124 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

special sense whose organ is the nose . Hidden away in 
the upper cavities of the nose are two small patches of 
mucus membrane. In these are distributed the olfactory 
nerves, the nerves of smell. They are affected by gas- 
eous particles of matter coming in contact with them, 
and there result the odor sensations. 

' ' These nerve ends are extremely sensitive and may 
be stimulated by inconceivably small portions of matter. 
It has been calculated that three one hundred millionths 
of a grain of musk can be distinctly smelled ; and a sub- 
stance called mercaptan can be smelled in still more 
minute quantities. ' ' 

Odors are many in number but they do not have 
definite names. They are usually grouped as : 

1. Agreeable. 

2. Disagreeable. 

These terms are not definite in meaning, but very 
vague. 

The effects of ammonia, horse-radish, pepper, snuff, 
and dust are not considered as sensations of smell, 
properly speaking. They more properly belong to the 
organic sense. 

Functions of Smell. — The functions of smeU are 
similar to those of taste. They are three in number. 

1. Smell is a sentinel to the stomach and the respi- 
ratory organs. 

2. Smell gives us ideas of many substances in the 
external world. 

3. Smell gives us a great deal of pleasure. 

*' Confusion of Taste and Smell. — The confusion of 
taste and smell is a very common experience. Many sub- 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 125 

stances, as fruits and cakes or confectionery containing 
certain 'flavoring extracts/ as vanilla, peppermint, etc., 
when taken into the mouth and subjected to its heat and 
moisture and the process of chewing, give off vapors 
which rise from the pharynx into the upper cavities of 
the nose and produce sensations of smell. These, occur- 
ring in such close connection with real sensations of 
taste, are not discriminated from them, and all go in as 
'taste.' The so-called cooking extracts have no true 
tastes, but only their respective odors and certain 
mechanical effects due to the alcohol which they con- 
tain. The taste of onions is sweetish, where any exists; 
their chief characteristic, even in the mouth, being their 
odor and the 'strong' mechanical effect. If the nasal 
passages be properly obstructed, one can not distinguish 
by taste alone peppermint or wintergreen lozenges from 
each other or from those without any 'flavoring' ele- 
ment. ' ' 

The Sense of Touch. — Touch is that one of the 
special senses which gives sensations of contact and pres- 
sure. The sense organs of touch are distributed through 
the layers of the skin. There are several forms of these. 
These are special endings of afferent nerve fibers, and 
some of them are quite complex. There are the follow- 
ing of these organs : 

1. Touch cells. 

2. Pacinian corpuscles. 

3. Tactile corpuscles. 

4. End bulbs. 

The organs of touch are more numerous or more 
sensitive in some parts of the skin than in other parts. 



126 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

The tip of the tongue, the lips, and the finger tips are 
most sensitive, while the thigh or mid dorsal region is 
least sensitive. The finger tips of the blind become most 
wonderfully sensitive, since they have to depend upon 
it largely for their knowledge of the external world. 

Strictly speaking the sensations of touch are only 
those of contact and pressure. Pressure by some author- 
ities is considered intensity of contact. 

Functions of Touch. — The functions of touch are in 
general of two classes : 

1. Pleasure-giving. 

2. Knowledge-giving. 

The sensations of smoothness and softness are 
pleasurable. They are especially so when combined as 
in velvet, or the human skin. Dust and sand give pleas- 
ant sensations to the feet and hands of children. Rough- 
ness and hardness when combined into harshness are on 
the other hand, disagreeable. 

The knowledge-giving function of touch is by far 
its most important function. Along with the muscular 
sense it gives us our most fundamental ideas of the 
material world. 

"Thus we derive from contact, first, the idea of 
extension, and thus also of superficial form. This comes 
from what is known as 'plurality of points,' that is 
through the number of points of stimulation, or of nerve 
ends excited. The idea of motion may also be derived 
from the succession of stimulated points, as when we 
draw a pencil point across the skin, or in the progress of 
a fly or other creeping thing across the cuticle. From 
plurality of points, we also derive ideas of surface, as 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 127 

roughness, smoothness, the rough surface being that in 
which the projecting points are relatively few and far 
apart, as in a rough-plastered wall contrasted with a 
polished surface. Some idea of weight may also be 
derived, as when a weight is placed on the back of a 
hand supported by a table. ' ' 

The Local Sign of Tactile Sensations. — It will be 
remembered that local sign of touch sensations is that 
characteristic of them which enables the mind to know 
the point of application of the stimulus. Thus the mind 
know^s pretty well just where the stimulus is applied on 
the skin or at how many points on the skin. This enables 
the mind to tell the form and size of objects. 

"The accuracy of this localizing power varies 
greatly with different areas of the skin. This may be 
tested by touching the skin at two points simultaneously, 
as with the points of a pair of compasses or scissors, and 
noting the distance between them necessary to produce 
a consciousness of two contacts. This distance is least 
on the tip of the tongue, where it is only four-hun- 
dredths of an inch, whereas, on the middle of the back 
the points must be over two inches apart in order to be 
distinguished as two." 

Thus touch gives the following ideas: extension, 
roughness, smoothness, iveight, form, distance, motion 
and size. 

"The value and importance of active touch is 
emphasized by the fact that it is so often employed as 
a court of appeal from the other senses. 'There are 
ghosts to all senses but one ; ' but whatever seems real to 
the touch has met the supreme test of reality. 'Let me 



128 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

take hold of it,' is our demand when we distrust our 
other senses. ' ' 

The Sense of Hearing. — The sense of hearing is 
that special sense which gives sensations of sound. The 
sense organ of hearing is the ear. The ear is a very- 
complicated organ consisting mainly of cavities/ canals, 
fluids and membranes. In these are distributed the ends 
of the fibers of the auditory nerves. 

The stimuli of hearing under ordinary conditions 
are tvaves, or vibrations, of the air. These vibrations are 
produced by some vibrating body. 

These waves of the air disturb the ends of the 
auditory nerves and set up impulses which result in 
sensations of sound. 

Classes of Sound. — Sounds are of two classes : 

1. Noises. 

2. Tones. 

Tones are sounds produced by regularity of vibra- 
tion of the air. Noises are sounds produced by irregu- 
larity of vibration in the air. 

Characteristics of Tones. — The characteristics of 
tones are three : 

1. Pitch. 

2. Intensity. 

3. Timbre, or quality. 

Pitch, which is ordinarily called highness or low- 
ness, of sound is due to the rapidity of vibration. A 
sound of the human voice produced by the vibration of 
the vocal cords at the rate of 100 per second is very low ; 
one produced by the vocal cords vibrating at the rate of 
700 times per second is very high. 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 129 

The range of the human voice is from eighty-seven 
to 768 vibrations per second ordinarily, though a famous 
singer's voice is said to have reached a height of 1,365 
per second. 

The ears of most persons are capable of responding 
to vibrations so as to hear only between thirty and 36,000 
vibrations per second. But in rare instances sounds are 
heard produced by from sixteen to 40,000 vibrations per 
second. 

The middle C of the musical scale is produced by a 
rate of 256 vibrations per second. 

Intensity of sound is usually called loudness or 
softness of sound. It results from the amplitude of the 
vibrations in the air. The amplitude of vibration has 
reference to the distance through which the vibrating 
medium swings. Thus if one vibrating string swings 
through a space of six inches and another swings 
through a space of twelve inches, the amplitude of the 
vibrations of the air produced by the second is greater 
than those produced by the first. Thus the amplitude, 
or breadth, of the sound waves determines the intensity 
of the sound. 

Timbre, or quality, of tone is that characteristic 
which enables the mind to tell tones of the same pitch 
and intensity one from another, as the tone of one 
friend's voice from another, the song of the robin from 
the song of the thrush, the song of the oriole from the 
song of the cat bird, the music of the fiddle from the 
music of the mandolin, or of the flute from the bagpipe. 
It is said that the difference in quality is due to differ- 
ence in overtones. 



130 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

Functions of Hearing. — The functions of hearing 
are in general of two kinds : 

1. Pleasure-giving. 

2. Knowledge-giving. 

The chief pleasure- giving value is to be found in 
music. Music charms, soothes, and delights the mind 
of everyone from the infant to the most aged. 

In addition to pitch, intensity, and quality of sound 
the mind gets harmony, distance, and direction through 
hearing. These when associated with objects give the 
mind a great deal of knowledge concerning objects in the 
external world. 

The Sense of Sight. — Sight has been called the king 
of the senses. Its wonderful range and its constant use 
during all of one's waking hours properly give it this 
high position. 

Sight is that one of the special senses which gives 
sensations of light and shade. 

Organ of Sight. — The eye is the organ of sight. 
"The organ of sight is a seemingly more simple but no 
less wonderful instrument than the organ of hearing. 
The enclosing envelope, or eyeball, consists of three coats 
or layers. The outer, called the Sclerotic coat, is a tough 
white membrane, which encloses the eye except in front, 
where the transparent cornea takes its place, like the 
crystal of a watch set in its case. Next within is the 
Choriod coat, a thin, black coat of great delicacy. In 
front, it is modified into the curtain called the Iris, the 
circular opening in which is called the Pupil. The iris 
contains certain muscles by the contraction of which 
the pupil may be dilated or contracted. The third or 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 131 

inner coat, called the Retina, covers only the back por- 
tion of the eyeball, having the form of a cup or bowl. ' ' 

The space inside these coats is filled up with humors 
and lenses. 1. Just back of the cornea is a watery fluid 
called the Aqueous Humor. 2. Just behind this humor 
is the Crystalline Lens, ' ' a double convex lens of a jelly- 
like substance having considerable elasticity and 
enclosed in a capsule attached to the Suspensory Liga- 
ment. " 3. Between the crystalline lens and the retina 
is the Vitreous Humor, a semifluid substance. 

Stimulus of Sight. — The stimulus of sight is vibra- 
tions of ether. Ether is a medium which pervades all 
space. The vibrations of ether enter the eye in rays, 
or lines, of light. The waves of these rays are many in 
number per second ranging from 462 trillions to 733 
trillions. 

These rays of light pass into the eye and stimulate 
the retina from which result the sensations of light and 
shade. 

Accommodation. — In order that rays of light may 
be focused upon the surface of the retina so as to form a 
correct image, means of adjusting the crystalline lens 
are provided. If the object to be seen is close to the 
eye the lens must be more convex than if it is at a 
distance. This adjustment of the lens to suit the eye to 
the distance of the object is called Accommodation. 

In order that the student may understand accommo- 
dation, it is absolutely necessary that he have well in 
mind the position of the parts of the eye. Having these 
in mind he can understand the following explanations: 
"In a state of rest the front of the lens is kept some- 



132 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

what flattened by the suspensory ligament, which is 
attached to the crystalline lens and to the ciliary pro- 
cesses. The ciliary processes are attached to the ciliary 
muscles, which is itself firmly attached to the point of 
junction of the cornea and sclerotic. When the ciliary 
muscles contract the ciliary processes are pulled for- 
ward. This loosens the suspensory ligament, and the 
crystalline lens by its own elasticity becomes more con- 
vex. The strain felt in looking at an object very near to 
the eye is the muscular feeling due to the contraction 
of the ciliary muscle." — Dexter and Garlick. 

"HoAV does the lens change its curvature? The 
crystalline lens is elastic, that is, if its surface be made 
flatter by pressure, it recovers its original curvature and 
shape when the pressure is removed. We have seen that 
the lens is kept in its place by the suspensory ligament 
passing off from its edge to the ciliary processes all 
around it. The lens itself is enclosed by a transparent 
membrane, thicker in front than behind, called the cap- 
sule of the lens. It is to this capsule that the suspensory 
ligament is attached, but the suspensory ligament not 
only joins the capsule at the edge of the lens, but becomes 
directly continuous mth the part of the capsule covering 
the front of the lens. This ligament is naturally tight, so 
that it is always more or less compressing the front of 
the lens, making this surface less convex than it would 
otherwise be. When we are looking at distant objects 
the pressure of the suspensory ligament is reducing the 
curvature of the front surface of the lens as much as 
possible, so as to make the lens weak. In this condition 
also is the lens when the eye is at rest, as during sleep. 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 133 

From the junction of the cornea and sclerotic there are 
fine unstriated muscle fibers passing downwards into the 
ciliary processes. These form a continuous ring of deli- 
cate muscle, called the ciliary muscle. "When this muscle 
contracts, the ciliary processes with the loosely-attached 
choroid are drawn upwards towards the origin of the 
muscle from the junction of the firm and immovable 
sclerotic and cornea. As the ciliary processes are moved 
they carry with them the attachment of the suspensory 
ligament up nearer to the lens; thus the Avhole suspen- 
sory ligament is slackened. When we look at a near 
object this muscle contracts, and so slackens the sus- 
pensory ligament, and the lens, the pressure on its 
anterior surface being lessened, becomes by its owii 
elasticity more convex. ' ' — Foster and Shore. 

External Muscles of the Eye. — The eyeball must be 
turned in various positions in seeing. There are six 
muscles attached to the eyeball on the outside: four 
straight m-uscles, called Recti, and two oblique muscles, 
called Ohliqui. The recti move the eyeball up and down 
and to the right and the left. The ohliqui run through 
loops which act as pulleys and move the eyes in direc- 
tions between those produced by the recti. 

These muscles are important psychologically in 
that sensations from them help sight in furnishing 
material for various kinds of ideas. 

The Unaided Office of the Eye. — In adult life we 
get so much of our knowledge through the sense of sight, 
that we are likely at first thought to overestimate its 
original power. Though in adult life we get ideas of 
distance, direction, size, form, roughness, smoothness, 



134 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

hardness, softness, heat and cold, not one of these 
ideas came to the mind originally through sight. Orig- 
inally sight gives but three things : 

1. Colors. 

2. Combination of colors. 

3. Intensity of light. 

Mr. Dewey calls these three things (1) hue, (2) 
tint, and (3) intensity. 

''A man who had never seen until he was thirty 
years old has sent to The Problem, a magazine for the 
blind, a remarkable account of his experience when the 
bandage was drawn from his eyes in the hospital, and 
he was, as it were, born again into the world. 

What I saw frightened me, it was so big and 
made such strange emotions I called out in terror and 
put out my hand. My fingers touched my nurse's face. 
I knew she was there, for she had just taken the 
bandages from my eyes, and I knew what I was touch- 
ing, but I did not know what it was I saw. 

'For mercy's sake, what is it? ' I asked. The nurse 
answered me soothingly, taking my fingers in her hand 
and moving them from her mouth to her eyes, to her 
nose, chin and forehead. 

' It is my face that you see. Look ! You know this 
is my mouth — my chin — and these are my eyes.' 

Soon I knew that I was seeing what was familiar to 
the touch of my fingers — a human face. But the sensa- 
tion was still one of terror. I seemed so small beside that 
expanse of human features which was so familiar to my 
fingers, so unnatural to my new sense. 

When the nurse moved away from my cot, I felt a 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 135 

new sensation, which was so agreeable that I laughed 
aloud. The nurse came back, but not so close as before. 

'What is that? ' I asked. 

'You are looking at the blanket which lies across 
your feet, ' she said. 

' Blankets must be very beautiful things, ' I said. 

' It is a red blanket, ' she explained. 

Then I thought I knew why people spoke of the 
beauty of the red rose. This was my first knowledge of 
colors. 

I saw and yet I did not know that I saw. How 
could I know at first that those new and wonderful sen- 
sations meant the birth of a sense of which I knew noth- 
ing except in theory? Of course I was expecting to see, 
but was this sight — this jumble of extraordinary sensa- 
tions ? 

The dazzling light first convinced me, for I had 
always been able to distinguish between night and day. 
But I could not recognize objects with my new-found 
sense until I had translated into its speech the language 
of the other senses. 

The one lesson of the blanket was sufficient to teach 
me the color, red. Yellow was a different matter. The 
nurse brought me a cool drink. I could recognize her by 
sight now. The thing I saw in her hand I knew to be a 
tray after I had felt it. Suddenly I felt a thrill of 
disgust. 

'What is that thing on the tray? ' I asked. 'It 
makes me sick. ' 

' It is a lemon. Yon said you liked lemonade. ' 



136 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

'Then it is yellow. It is the color that nauseates 
me.' 

Any object close to me looked tremendously large. 
I had often romped with children, yet when I first 
set eyes on a baby it looked gigantic. 

The first day I sat by the window I put my hand out 
to feel the pavement. 

' That must be the pavement, ' I said. ' I 'm going to 
feel of it to make sure. ' 

'My goodness! ' laughed the nurse. 'The pavement 
is two stories below. ' 

The first meal I ate was an odd experience. When 
I saw the great hand with a huge fork approaching my 
mouth, the inclination to dodge was almost irresistible." 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF KNOWING. 

The Meaning of Development. — The best way to 
study knowing is to study its development. But the 
question, What is development of knowing? at once 
suggests itself. To understand this problem it is neces- 
sary to remember that all knowing is grasping relations. 
Then knowing which is developed to only a small extent 
is that kind of knowing in which but few relations are 
grasped; and knowing which is more developed is that 
kind of knowing in which more relations are grasped. 
From which it appears that development in knoiving 
consists in grasping more and more relations. 

To show that one kind of knowing is developed 
more than another kind is to show that more relations 
are grasped in one kind than in another. 

Illustration. — If one studies a butterfly but five 
minutes, he knows but little about it because he has 
seen it in only a few relations, and his knowledge of 
the butterfly is but little developed. Suppose now that 
he studies the butterfly five months ; then he may know 
much about it because he has seen it in many relations ; 
that is, he has grasped many relations, and his knowl- 
edge of the butterfly is much developed. Thus the de- 
velopment of one's knowledge of a thing consists of 



138 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

grasping more and more relations of the thing. And 
again the conclusion is reached that development in 
Jcnoiving is gaining in the number of relations grasped. 
Stages in the Development of Knowing. — As the 
mind develops in knowing it passes through various 
stages somewhat like one's passing through stages on 
a journey. These stages are as follows: 

1. Sense-perception. 

2. Memory. 

3. Imagination. 

4. Conception. 

5. Definition. 

6. Judgment. 

7. Reasoning. 

8. Systematization. 

9. Intuition. 

Sense-perception is the least developed kind of 
knowing and intuition is the most highly developed 
kind. 

Sense-perception. — In general, sense-perception is 
the mind's process of getting a knowledge of material 
objects through the senses. 

Sense-perception is based upon and grows out of 
the sensation. But the sensations are not knowing. 
They must be connected, related and interpreted before 
they become knowledge. But just as soon as the mind 
begins to do this; that is, connect the sensations, relate 
and see the difference and likeness between them, it is 
sense-perceiving. 

The sensations are the material which the mind 
works up into knowledge of external objects, as it were. 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 139 

In sense-perception the mind interprets the sensations ; 
that is, gets meaning — sees the likeness and difference 
between the present sensations and the past sensations. 
The following is the formal definition for it : 

Sense-perception is that stage in the development 
of knowing in which the mind interprets the sensations 
from some external ohject. 

The mind regards its sensations as attributes of 
objects. Thus the mind regards the sensation, sour, as 
something in the acid; the sensation, sweet as some- 
thing in the sugar; the sensation, green, red, and so on 
as things in the objects. In this way the mind learns 
to interpret sensations and to know objects. Thus the 
mind interprets a patch of red color as a strawberry; 
a patch of blue color as a bunch of grapes; a certain 
note as a bluebird, or a certain odor as a clover field. 

Memory. — Every experience the mind has changes 
it permanently. This permanent change is the effect of 
the experience. The effect of experiences is retained and 
this gives the mind the tendency to act the same exper- 
ience again. There is no memory without this reten- 
tion of the effect of an experience. When the mind acts 
an experience which it has had before it is reacting, or 
reproducing. There is no memory without reacting. 
These two things, retention and reacting are elements 
of all memory. But there must also be another element. 
When the mind reacts an experience, if there is a com- 
plete process of memory, it must be aware that it is 
reacting. This process of knowing that one is reknow- 
ing is identifying. The present experience is identified 
with the past experience. This act of identifying is the 



140 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

third element in memory. Hence the following defini- 
tion for memory : 

Memory is the mental process of retaining^ reacting 
and identifying past mental experiences. 

Memory as the second stage in the development of 
knowing is a little higher kind of knowing than sense- 
perception. Sense-perception confines the mind to 
present time and present place. Memory goes into past 
time and goes beyond present places. Memory is three 
points beyond sense-perception in knowing: 1. It 
gives past time. 2. Other place relations than the 
present. 3. In it the mind knows that it is reknow- 
ing. 

Imagination. — In brief, imagination is the process 
of making images. 

The mind has the power of putting its ideas in 
images, or pictures. If one shuts his eyes and makes 
the picture of the following described apple, he is 
imagining : 

A large dark-red apple, three inches in diameter, 
almost spherical, with a rotten spot as large as a finger 
nail on one side, and a worm hole on the opposite side, 
is lying on a platter sitting on a stand in the center 
of a room. 

This image is a particular thing and is formed from 
a complex idea. Hence the following definition of 
imagination: 

Imagination is the mental process of embodying 
an idea in a particular form, or image. 

Imagination as the third stage in the development 
of knowing is a higher kind of knowing than memory. 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 141 

The mind never remembers an object in all its exact 
details. Imagination enables the mind to fill out in a 
picture the places where memory fails. The mind can 
project itself into the future in imagination, too. It is 
also a freer act of the mind than memory. 

These three advances of imagination over memory 
may be stated as follows : 

1. The imagination fills out the incompleteness in 
acts of memory. 

2. The imagination enables the mind to grasp 
future time and thus to project itself into the future. 

3. The imagination is freer than memory. 
Conception. — In brief, conception is the mind's 

process of forming general ideas. 

In order to know an object well, the mind must see 
it in both its particular and general aspects ; that is, 
must see how it differs from other things, and also how it 
is like other things. Some of the stages of knowing 
emphasize one aspect of an object and some, the other. 
Thus in sense-perception, memory, and imagination the 
mind emphasizes the particular aspect of objects, but in 
conception, definition, judgment, reasoning and system- 
atization the mind emphasizes the universal aspects of 
objects. 

In conception the mind selects a number of the com- 
mon attributes of a class of objects and forms an idea 
from them. Thus one's idea, triangle, is made up of (1) 
the idea, polygon ; (2) having just three sides and angles. 
These are attributes common to all triangles. The 
mind's process of forming such general ideas is concep- 
tion. Thus the following definition for it : 



142 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

Conception is the mind's process of forming an idea 
made up of the common attributes of a class of objects. 

Conception's advance in development over imagina- 
tion, memory and sense-perception is in shifting the 
mind's emphasis from the particular aspects of objects 
to the general aspects. Sense-perception and imagina- 
tion, the idea-forming stages of knowing below concep- 
tion, give the mind particular ideas ; conception, also an 
idea-forming stage of knowing, advances to the general 
idea. 

Definition. — An examination of how the mind 
naturally forms a definition will reveal the nature of the 
process of definition. 

Let the thing to be defined be the triangle. The 
mind examines a particular triangle, observing its attri- 
butes; then it examines a second triangle, observing its 
attributes ; then a third, and so on. The mind compares 
these various particular triangles and selects their 
essential common attributes. It finds that a triangle (1) 
is a polygon; (2) has just three sides, and (3) has just 
three angles. 

The mind now makes a synthesis of these comimon 
truths of triangles in the form of a thought, which gives 
the following : A triangle is a polygon having just three 
sides a7id> three angles. This, it is evident, is a definition 
of a triangle, and the mind's process of arriving at this 
mental product is the mental process of definition. 
Hence the following definition : 

Definition is the mental process of mahvtig a syn- 
thesis of the essential common attributes of a class of 
objects in the form of a thought. 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 143 

The advance of definition over conception is in that 
(1) definition is more definite than conception; (2) defi- 
nition is more economical. The first of these points 
appears from the fact that we have concepts of many 
things which we have never defined and can not define. 
The second appears from the fact that in conception 
the mind selects as many common attributes as it can, 
while in definition it selects only the essential ones. 

Judgment. — The mind gets particular ideas through 
sense-perception, and general ideas through con- 
ception. In judgement the mind grasps and 
asserts the relation between ideas. For example, the 
mind of man had the idea, coal, and the idea, fuel, for 
years before it ever grasped the relation between those 
ideas. When at last it did, it asserted that coal is a fuel. 
This process of grasping the relation between ideas and 
asserting it is the mind's process of judging. Hence the 
following definition : 

Judgment is the mind's process of grasping the 
relation between ideas and asserting it. 

The advance in development in judgment is assert- 
ing the relations between ideas of any kind whatever; 
that is, in getting more relations, and emphasizing them. 

Reasoning. — In judgment the mind emphasizes the 
relation between ideas. In reasoning it emphasizes the 
relation among judgments. In every act of reasoning 
there are three judgments involved, so related that the 
last is reached because of its relation to the other two. 
Thus having the two judgments, Man is mortal, and Wil- 
liam is a maUy the mind reaches the third judgment, 



144 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 

William is mortal, and this process of the mind is reason- 
ing. Hence the definition : 

Reasoning is the mind's process of reaching a judg- 
ment because of its relation to two preceding judgments. 

The advance in development in reasoning is in 
grasping the relation between entire judgments, a fur- 
ther broadening of the relations grasped. 

Systematization. — In judgment the mind grasps the 
relation between ideas; in reasoning, between judg- 
ments ; and in systematization, between complete acts of 
reasoning. Thus by systematization the mind connects 
all the truths of plant life into a complete system — ^the 
science of botany ; also, all the truths of animal life into 
the science of zoology. Thus the definition : 

Systematization is the mind's process of grasping 
the relations between complete acts of reasoning. 

It is evident that in systematization the mind 
reaches broader relations than in reasoning and this is 
its advance over reasoning. Science and philosophy 
result from systematization. 

Intuition. — Intuition, the highest stage in the 
development of knowing, is rational insight. 

In the stages in the development of knowing from 
sense-perception to imagination, inclusive, the mind 
emphasizes the particular aspects of known objects ; but 
in the development of knowing from conception to sys- 
tematization, inclusive, the mind emphasizes the general 
aspects of objects. Thus in no stage of knowing from 
sense-perception to systematization does the mind grasp 
an object with equal emphasis upon both its particular 
and general aspects. This it does in the highest stage 



INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY. 145 

of knowing, Intuition. Intuition in its fullness is thus 
knowing an object completely, and is thus the end of the 
development of knowing. This knowing is always more 
or less implicit ; that is, not reflectively in consciousness. 
Hence the definition : 

Intuition is the mind's process of implicitly grasp- 
ing an object with equal emphasis upon both its par- 
ticular and general aspects. 

In intuition the advance is in the equal emphasis 
of the mind in grasping an object in both its general 
and particular aspects. This is the most complete know- 
ing of an object and with it the development of knowing 
ends. 



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